National Instruments has incorporated the power of dual and quad-core processing with extended data storage facilities for use in (PCI extensions for instrumentation) PXI systems.
National Instruments has announced the release of the NI 8352 and NI 8353 high-performance, multicore-based, server-class controllers for use in PXI or PXI Express systems. The NI 8352 and NI 8353 rack-mount controllers can be bundled with the appropriate MXI-Express or MXI-4 remote controllers for remote control of PXI or PXI Express chassis. The controllers offer high computing performance and make it easy to achieve high sustainable I/O bandwidth of up to 832 MBps when bundled with an MXI-Express kit. With standard redundant array of independent disk (RAID) - configured hard drives for Windows-based systems, these controllers are ideal for high-end test and measurement applications.
The new NI 8352 and NI 8353 rack-mount controllers are based on the Intel dual-core Core 2 Duo and quad-core Core 2 Quad processors, respectively. These multicore processors are designed to simultaneously execute multiple computing tasks on separate CPU cores. Using the multithreaded nature of NI LabVIEW software, test engineers can scale applications based on the total available number of cores and can benefit from faster, more flexible applications.
These new controllers also work with a variety RAID storage configurations with multiple SATA II hard drives that support both RAID 0 (stripped) and RAID 1 (mirrored) configurations. RAID defines data storage schemes that divide and/or replicate data among multiple hard drives to provide increased reliability and/or increased file I/O performance. The new rack-mount controllers have up to four 250 GB hard drives with a maximum capacity of 1 TB and data read/write rates of up to 200 MBps, a significant increase over the previous controllers. With these benefits, test engineers can record and playback data faster and for longer durations.
Also available is the NI 8353 RT controller, a version of the NI 8353 multicore-based controller that works with the LabVIEW Real-Time operating system. The NI 8353 RT takes advantage of the available quad cores on the Intel processor to increase performance and determinism for various realtime applications. With this enhancement, test engineers can build PXI- or PXI Express-based test, measurement and control applications with realtime response and high determinism. Because of the modularity of PXI and open development environment of LabVIEW, test engineers can also create a custom realtime embedded solution using the NI 8353 RT controller with any number and combination of PXI/PXI Express plug-in modules. This makes it possible to achieve deterministic, reliable and realtime performance for a multitude of applications.
For more information on the NI 8352, NI 8353 and NI 8353 RT controllers, readers can visit www.ni.com/pxi.
What is PXI
PCI extensions for instrumentation (PXI) is an open specification governed by the PXI Systems Alliance (www.pxisa.org) that defines a rugged, CompactPCI-based platform optimised for test, measurement and control. Founded in 1997, the PXI specification is supported by more than 70 member companies and more than 1500 products are available. PXI products are compatible with the CompactPCI and CompactPCI Express industrial computer standards and offer additional features such as environmental specifications, standardised software and built-in timing and synchronisation.
For more information contact National Instruments South Africa, +27 (0)800 203 199, [email protected], www.ni.com/southafrica
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