Adlink has launched a new PXI Controller that runs Linux and other embedded operating systems. PXI, or PCI eXtensions for Instrumention, is a multi-vendor, open industrial specification for test and measurement applications, industrial automation, and data acquisition.

(Click for larger view of Adlink PXI Controller Chassis)

According to Adlink, “[PXI] combines a high speed PCI bus with the rugged, modular Eurocard mechanical package of CompactPCI to provide the best electrical performance and MTTR [mean time to repair].” The PXI specification is maintained and promoted by the PXI Systems Alliance.

The Adlink PXI controller comprises two components: The PXIS-2700 is a 3U CompactPCI chassis (shown above) with 17 PXI peripheral expansion slots, and one system slot with two PXI-to-PXI bridges. The PXI-3710 (at right) is a Pentium-III based PXI controller with VGA, DVI, Ethernet, and dual-CompactFlash interfaces.

The chassis

According to Adlink, the PXIS-2700 incorporates “all features” defined by PXI and CompactPCI specifications.

Chassis features include:

• Internal 10MHz reference clock on all 17 PXI slots
• PXI trigger bus is divided into three segments
• Star trigger signals are available from the third to fifteenth slots
• Redundant 460-watt power supplies
• Alarm module with buzzer monitors power supply, temperature, and hot-swappable (from front panel) fans

The PXI controller

According to Adlink, the PXI-3710 is a moderately priced, high performance platform for test and measurement applications.

Front and side drawings, and a functional diagram of the Adlink PXI-3710 PXI controller

Controller features include:

• Longevity assured by Intel P-III (comes standard with 1.4GHz P-III) and 815E chipset
• VGA and DVI (digital video interface) ports
• Hot swappable CompactFlash interfaces:
  • Internal CF interface based on IDE, to replace rotary motor hard drive
  • External CF interface supports removable storage devices to replace traditional floppy disks

• 10/100BaseTx Ethernet RJ45 connector on the front faceplate
• Comes standard with a 20GB hard drive and 256MB of SDRAM, expandable to 512
• Optional floppy drive available

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.