Fastest way to control a switch matrix?

[JoeWork]

I will have a external pulse that I can use to control changing from one switch configuration to another on a switch matrix card.  I am currently looking at the PXI-2530, but I am investigating faster solutions.  I will use Switch Executive to set up my switch configurations, but I need to know what is the fastest way to make that configuration change.  I will be wanting to switch as close to the switching spec of the data sheet of the PXI card, so I need to reduce Windows and other delay.  Should I consider using a FPGA card for the control?  Is there a backplane control solution that is fast?

Thanks!!

Joe

[ChaisePotato]

Hi Joe,

What exactly do you mean when you say that you are looking for a "faster" way to control the switch card? Are you looking for highly accurate switch triggering that is only possible with a deterministic system, or are you looking for a card that can actually switch different matrix configurations faster? 

Btw, I would recommend looking at the newer PXI-2530B instead of the PXI-2530.

[JoeWork]

If I use Switch Executive to set up configurations and then change the configurations in a loop running on LabVIEW running from Windows you won't have deterministic switching times and you probably won't have the ability to get the switch to switch close to the spec of the card which is about 500 usec.  At least I don't think I will be able to.

I was given the following cards to look at as a better alternative: PXI-2501, the PXI-2535, and the PXI-2536.

[ChaisePotato]

Have you looked into using hardware scanning techniques? This basically supplies a list of channel connections that is downloaded into the memory of the switch device in the form of a scan list. Once the scanning has been triggered, the switch module executes the scan list independent of the host CPU. There are a few examples built into LabVIEW that accomplish this that you might find helpful.