PCIe products offer tight syncronization

National Instruments introduces two PXI Express products that extend the platform's performance and capabilities, especially for multichassis systems. The NI PXIe-6674T timing module is claims to be the industry's highest performance timing and synchronization module, and the NI PXIe-PCIe8388 controller is touted the industry's first 8GBps/direction remote controller. Engineers can use the new products to create high-performance PXI Express systems with tight synchronization and high system data throughput.

The NI PXIe-6674T timing module unlocks advanced timing and synchronization capabilities for PXI Express systems. It generates and routes clocks and triggers between devices in a PXI Express chassis. It can externally route signals to other PXI and PXI Express chassis or third-party instrumentation. The timing module can generate two types of clock signals. The first is a stable 10MHz clock based on an onboard precision OCXO reference with 50ppb accuracy. The second is a clock up to 1GHz with?Hz resolution from the direct digital synthesis (DDS) clock generation circuit. It also features advanced trigger and timing routing with PXIe_DSTAR differential star trigger lines that offer less than 500ps skews and 10ns of delays.

The NI PXIe-PCIe8388 kit uses a x16 Gen 2 PCI Express link that provides up to 8GBps/direction of sustained throughput. Engineers can use the NI PXIe-PCIe8388 remote controller to control PXI Express systems from a x16 Gen 2 PCI Express slot in an NI rack-mount controller. For example, the remote controller works with the new NI RMC-8354 (which features an Intel Core i7 processor) through a fully transparent, high-bandwidth cabled PCI Express link. The remote controller is eight times faster than the company's existing remote controllers. It also features a downstream port to create high-performance, multichassis systems by connecting to other PXI Express chassis as well as to other enclosures with general-purpose graphical processing units (GP-GPUs) for added computational ability.

Both new products work with NI software, such as the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment, as well as NI hardware, such as modular instruments.