Test & Measurement: Fast Eight-Port Serial Boards Take The Comm Load Off CPUs

Two eight-port serial boards deliver data rates up to 2 Mbits/s, improving CPU utilization by up to 15 times compared to traditional plug-in serial interfaces. The PCI-8430/8 and PCI-8431/8 allow nonstandard baud rates from 57 bits/s to 2 Mbits/s at 1% accuracy. Accuracy at standard rates is 0.01%. For users needing to communicate simultaneously with many instruments or devices under test, the boards operate at the maximum data rate with little or no effect on the CPU, freeing it up for virtual-instrument applications. The boards come with NI-Serial driver software that works with any of the company's development environments, like LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Prices start at $695.