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VXIbus System Specification Revision 4.0 Now Available

The VXIbus System Specification,VXI-1, Revision 4.0 is available now from the VXIbus Consortium website at http://www.vxibus.org/?q=node/206. The VXIbus is a well-conceived, established, time-tested and thriving standard. This new major revision to the VXI standard shows why.

The key improvements to the VXIbus in Revision 4.0 are higher throughput, increased power, and better synchronization. The extension of the existing 3-row connectors to 5 rows allows for more power supply lines and return grounds, the 2eSST protocol, and additional clock and synchronization signals. The extension of the existing bus with the P0 connector allows high-speed serial busses like PCI Express for module-to-module and computer-to-module communication in a VXIbus system.

System integrators will now have the greatest flexibility in designing and implementing test systems. The VXIbus System Specification, Revision 4.0 includes enhancements made to the VMEbus as well as the addition of serial fabric technology specified in the VITA 41 (VXS) specification. Revision 4.0 also maintains backwards compatibility with existing VXIbus modules. New Revision 4.0 module interconnections can be designed to take advantage of all new features, including high-speed serial. Older VXIbus modules can undergo relatively minor changes to take advantage of 2eSST faster block transfers and higher current. Shielded VXIbus 4.0-to-VME and VXIbus-to-PXI/PXIe adapters may now be built, which can add many new and high performance modules currently available only for those standards.

The higher throughput, increased power supply lines, and better synchronization provide military, aerospace, and commercial industries with new solutions for the VXIbus:

• High Speed and High Channel Density Data Acquisition and Control
• Synthetic Instrument point to point communication for IF/RF acquisition and generation
• High speed digital and serial protocol testing
• Signal intelligence, electronic warfare, and RADAR

"VXIbus 4.0 will make VXI the world's most powerful instrumentation bus for many years to come. It is backwards compatible with existing VXI modules. There is transparent support for VITA-41 (VME), PXI and PXI Express modules with no software changes. And it affords a high-end packaging solution for military/aerospace test, high-speed digital, RF, synthetic, and data acquisition applications," said Tom Sarfi, President of the VXIbus Consortium.

About the VXIbus Consortium
The VXIbus Consortium is a not-for-profit corporation made up of the leading companies in the Test & Measurement Industry. The consortium's goals are to develop, support, and promote the VXIbus architecture, the most popular open standard platform for data acquisition and ATE systems in the world today. For more information, visit www.vxibus.org.