PXIe Chassis, Embedded controller module selection queries

[kvinay]

Dear sir,

Presently i have PXI-1042 to with me but in present market the part status is mature so i have decide to go with the PXIe chassis.

1)Could please recommend PXIe chassis which is better or equivalent to PXI-1042 chassis?

Queries related to PXIe chassis selection:

I have gone through the ni website and shortlisted some PXIe chassis. But i am not able to finalize the chassis due to no clear understanding of certain parameters those are listed below could you please explain those.

Parameters:

1)What is maximum system bandwidth is it the total slots bandwidth or individual slot bandwidth?

2)What is external clocking and how  is it useful?

3)How system timing slot work is it necessary to be there on PXIe slot?

4)How the External trigger access works.

Part number	PXI Chassis Type	Slot Count	Maximum System Bandwidth	External Clocking	System Timing Slot	External Trigger Access
787026-01	PXI Express	5	2 GB/s	No	No	No
784782-01	PXI Express	9	8 GB/s	No	No	No
784781-01	PXI Express	10	24 GB/s	No	Yes	No
786991-01	PXI Express	10	24 GB/s	Yes	Yes	Yes

Queries related to PXIe controller selection:

i have shortlisted some embedded controllers but iam not able to finalize because of difficulty in understanding the controller bandwidth. 

1)Could you please explain about the controller bandwidth?

Embedded controllers list for the above PXIe chassis:

Model	Part number	Hard Drive Memory Size	Processor Core	Controller OS	Maximum Controller Bandwidth
PXIe-8821	785545-01	320 GB	Intel Core i3	Windows 10 64-bit	2 GB/s
PXIe-8821	785158-04	320 GB	Intel Core i3	Windows 7 64-bit	2 GB/s
PXIe-8821	785158-33	320 GB	Intel Core i3	LabVIEW Real-Time (Phar Lap)	2 GB/s
PXIe-8821	787895-33	320 GB	Intel Core i3	LabVIEW Real-Time (NI Linux Real-Time)	2 GB/s
PXIe-8840	785782-04	250 GB	Intel Core i5	Windows 7 64-bit	2 GB/s
PXIe-8840	785782-01	250 GB	Intel Core i5	Windows 10 64-bit	2 GB/s
PXIe-8840	785782-33	250 GB	Intel Core i5	LabVIEW Real-Time (Phar Lap)	2 GB/s
PXIe-8840	787893-33	250 GB	Intel Core i5	LabVIEW Real-Time (NI Linux Real-Time)	2 GB/s
PXIe-8861	785831-33	512 GB	Xeon Quad-Core	LabVIEW Real-Time (NI Linux Real-Time)	16 GB/s
PXIe-8861	785831-01	512 GB	Xeon Quad-Core	Windows 10 64-bit	16 GB/s
PXIe-8861	787567-01	512 GB	Xeon Quad-Core	Windows 10 64-bit	16 GB/s

3)Could you please suggest right combination of the PXIe chassis and the Embedded controller chassis?

Thanks in advance.

[santo_13]

There is a bigger catch that you're missing, how about the instruments? are you going to buy new or reuse the ones from PXI?

The issue is that the PXIe chassis comes with a handful of PXI, PXIe and PXIe Hybrid slots. Out of these the old PXI instruments can only be installed in the PXI slots.

For example, if you choose PXIe-1062Q,

• 1 x PXIe slot
• 2 x Hybrid slot
• 4 x PXI slot

Now to answer your questions,

1. Could please recommend PXIe chassis which is better or equivalent to PXI-1042 chassis?
   • My above question about instruments is critical to select the right chassis or you might end up with a chassis incompatible with the instruments
2. What is maximum system bandwidth is it the total slots bandwidth or individual slot bandwidth?
   • PXIe is implemented using PCIe and the bandwidth you see is the total system bandwidth
   • If you see it as 8GB/s, that means a total of all bandwidths used by the instruments cannot exceed 8GB/s
   • Treat this term like the internet speed, all computers in your home share the total internet bandwidth allocated by your ISP
3. What is external clocking and how is it useful?
   • If you have an external 10MHz reference used for other bench instruments or chassis, you can connect them together so that all the instruments refer to the same signal, that way your timing resolution and stability does not vary between instruments.
4. How system timing slot work is it necessary to be there on PXIe slot?
   • Used to install a Timing instrument such as 6674T that enables you to route advanced triggers (not just the typical PXI triggers but other differential length matched triggers) to all slots, comes with higher accuracy and stable OCXO 10MHz reference, route external signals with the PXI trig lines
   • Typically it will be present in medium & large chassis
5. How the External trigger access works
   • By providing some sort of cabling that can route the triggers to the PXI Trig bus
   • For example, you have an Keithley DMM that need to measure on trigger from one of the PXI instruments, you can export the trigger from the PXI instrument to the PXI Trig line, wire the PXI trig line form the Chassis to the Trig terminal of the DMM and Vice versa is also possible
6. Could you please explain about the controller bandwidth?
   • Similar to the System bandwidth but for the embedded controller.
   • Consider the system bandwidth as the Internet speed provided by your ISP (for example Google Fiber provides 1 Gb/s)
   • And the controller bandwidth is the ethernet/WiFi bandwidth of your computer (for example 100Mb/s)
   • Now you would have realized that if your controller bandwidth is smaller than the system bandwidth you don't maximize the usage and the same applies vice versa
   • About suggesting a better controller, choose the one that has equal or higher bandwidth than your PXIe system bandwidth, in terms of CPU, RAM, HDD, it completely depends on your budget and application, I would choose the 8881 with 18-core CPU and 64GB RAM

[kvinay]

Thank you Santhosh for you reply. I have couple of queries based on your reply could you answer.

Hi PXI-1042  chassis and modules are in our counter part and we are developing similar capability here in India  with the PXIe chassis. We don't have the PXI chassis & PXI module slots with us. we not looking for PXIe chassis backward compatibility with PXI chassis.

Could you please reply to below queries for selecting new PXIe chassis, embedded /remote controller whose performance is equal to or more than the PXI-1042 chassis.

Queries:

1)What would be your recommendation for a chassis which will be equivalent or more capable than PXI-1024 ?

I found PXIe-1088 is a good fit for our application. Please comment

2)What would be your recommendation for an embedded controller which will be equivalent  or more capable than the PXI-8110 controller ? Because PXI-8110 embedded controller is used in the PXI-1042 chassis.

3) What would be your preference in terms of operating system for an embedded controller ?

4)Embedded controller vs remote controller what would be your preference? Any pros and cons between these two approaches ?

5)Regarding placing an order-> Can we place an order online or will raise a PO to NI ?, What would be the Lead Time ? (Note: We are located in India).

[santo_13 · Accepted solution]

All the suggestions I have been providing are strictly based on the data you've provided and looking up equivalents online.

1. What would be your recommendation for a chassis which will be equivalent or more capable than PXI-1042?

   I found PXIe-1088 is a good fit for our application. Please comment

   • Just going by the number of Slots, PXIe-1088 is a good equivalent. Curious, are you using a DSA Master in Slot 2 of 1042? that slot has some advanced trigger capabilities.
2. What would be your recommendation for an embedded controller which will be equivalent or more capable than the PXI-8110 controller? Because PXI-8110 embedded controller is used in the PXI-1042 chassis.
   • 8861 seems to be good (there is also a version with TPM so probably supports Win11)
3. What would be your preference in terms of an operating system for an embedded controller?
   • Since you ask this question, I believe you've little idea about what is going to run on this PXI
   • This means you need to elaborate your application in order to properly select the OS
   • In general, the majority of the PXI systems are Windows based
4. Embedded controller vs remote controller what would be your preference? Any pros and cons between these two approaches?
   • I prefer embedded controller for the ruggedness and compactness + high bandwidth
   • If you're short on budget, you can go with a Laptop/computer with a thunderbolt port and use the 8301 remote control module
5. Regarding placing an order-> Can we place an order online or will raise a PO to NI ?, What would be the Lead Time? (Note: We are located in India).
   • Better reach out to NI for a consultation before placing the order so that you don't have surprises after the order arrives.
   • Lead time is going to be the same whether you order online or through NI Sales over a PO
   • With the current Industry chip shortages, lead times are at a record high across the whole semiconductor industry. Depending on the stock available and dependency of longer lead time components used, your overall lead time will definitely vary.

Based on all this discussion, I feel that you have little idea about what you want but are not confident enough to select. Since you're going to make a substantial investment I suggest consulting NI Sales about your application and HW selection to ensure you don't make any mistakes.

[crossrulz]

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@santo_13 wrote:

Since you're going to make a substantial investment I suggest consulting NI Sales about your application and HW selection to ensure you don't make any mistakes.

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Or a local NI Alliance Partner that has experience building a PXI system.

[kvinay]

Hi santhosh,

The above reply solved my problems