ADLINK Introduces 18-Slot PXI Express Chassis
April 1, 2013. ADLINK Technology has announced a new PXI Express (PXIe) chassis for applications requiring enhanced bandwidth and higher density and capacity. ADLINK’s PXES-2780, an 18-slot PXI Express chassis with 10 hybrid peripheral slots, provides a configurable PCI Express (PCIe) switch fabric that enables configuration with 2-link x8 and 4-link x4 PXI Express deployments, allowing full utilization of the PCIe gen2 bandwidth. Featuring fast data throughput, flexible configuration, innovative structure, and intelligent management functions, the PXES-2780 is suitable for a variety of testing and measurement applications, such as wireless and RF testing.
High Data Throughput, Flexible Configuration
The ADLINK PXES-2780 18-slot PXI Express chassis provides one system slot, one system timing slot, 10 hybrid peripheral slots, and six PXI Express peripheral slots for up to 8-GB/s system bandwidth and 4-GB/s slot bandwidth for dedicated peripheral slots. Support for 2-link x8 deployment by a configurable PCIe switch fabric eases higher bandwidth system upgrades. The 10 hybrid slots preserve backward compatibility to accept PXIe/PXI/cPCIe/cPCI modules, providing flexibility in PXI and PXI Express module slot replacement and reducing the cost of system upgrades.
The PXES-2780’s structural design delivers high availability in reliable testing systems, and built-in high quality reference instrumentation clocks for module synchronization ensure performance of modules from third-party vendors. A cooling system, dissipating 38.2 W for each peripheral slot, and a high quality independent power module for all rails, together maximize operational reliability. For noise-sensitive environments, the PXES-2780 presents a low operating noise level of 46.3 dBA at room temperature.
The PXES-2780 offers built-in intelligent chassis management, enabling communication with embedded controllers via SMBus, or remote management from a remote system via a standard RS-232 port. With ADLINK’s software-configurable PXES-2780 Intelligent Management Interface (IMI), users can easily monitor and manage test equipment, whether bench-top system or connected external test instruments, and settings for the PCIe switch fabric, fan speed, chassis status monitoring and reporting, and remote chassis power on/off. The IMI also enables notifications when user-configured limits are met.
“The ADLINK PXES-2780 PXI Express chassis’ enhanced bandwidth and higher density and capacity are typically designed for multi-channel testing applications,” said Catherine Wu, product director of ADLINK's Measurement and Automation Product Segment. “As an example, for customers who require a dual-channel signal analyzer for RF/microwave signals, ADLINK’s 18-slot PXES-2780 chassis can accommodate large numbers of modules to test dual DUT at the same time, saving space and increasing testing system efficiency.”
The PXES-2780 follows the Q1 2012 release of the ADLINK PXI/PXIe high bandwidth product family for functional test applications.