PXI Systems Alliance Intros New PXI Multicomputing Specification

The PXI Systems Alliance, a group of 59 companies that develops open, multivendor CompactPCI (News - Alert) systems for applications in test and measurement, industrial automation and data acquisition, has reportedly announced to release the new PXI MultiComputing or ‘PXImc’ specification for providing support to high performance, communication architecture for multi-controller PXI and automated test systems.

 

The alliance has launched PXI-7, a new hardware and PXI-8, a software specification that will jointly continue the innovation of the PXI standard, and will also provide backwards compatibility to over 1,500 PXI products available today.

 

These specifications are based on PCI (News - Alert) Express and its cabled derivative, and help in making vendor interoperable communication between multiple controllers or systems possible, deploying a high throughput and low latency communications link.

 

In addition, the PXImc supports communication between laptops, high performance computers, and standalone instruments, and helps in connecting multiple chassis or controllers within a PXI-based system. The standard preserves the high bandwidth and low latency performance, a norm with the PXI architecture.

 

Deploying the PXImc specifications, users can use multiple processing modules inside a single PXI chassis, as the PXImc processor modules within the peripheral slots of a PXI chassis provide flexible processing power inside a single PXI system. The standard also makes it possible to incorporate additional PXI features in future, such as enhanced system redundancy and distributed computing. It is also possible for the users to bank upon the PXImc specification using the non-transparent bridges, and connect and communicate between separate PCI domains.

 

According to Mark Wetzel, Technical Chairman, PXISA, the non-transparent bridge technology has been used for more than a decade but only implemented in vendor specific solutions. Wetzel added that the PXImc specification standardizes the non-transparent bridge hardware and software to ensure that multiple vendors' products will work together.

 

As a result of the modern advancements being made in the PXI technology, capabilities of the PXI standard are being continuously improved, increasing its application reach. After the standard had been introduced, PXI has been deployed in over 100,000 systems including an estimated 600,000 PXI modular instruments and related devices.

 

The PXI standard is based upon an open, software-defined architecture, that deploys high performance PC technology for enabling precise automated tests. The standard will see a highly increasing adoption rate with a projected compounded annual growth rate of 17.6 percent through 2014, says a report.

 

Earlier this year, the PXI Systems Alliance had announced 2008 was one of its strongest years in membership growth with the addition of 14 new member companies. Demonstrating the PXI standard's cross-industry appeal, the new member companies represented a diverse set of growing industries, including aerospace, consumer electronics, wireless, and semiconductor.