Agilent Technologies 81250, Installation Manual

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ParBERT Components Overview 2 Introduction
Agilent 81250 ParBERT Installation Guide, May 2004 2-11
About ParBERT Systems
An Agilent 81250 Parallel Bit Error Ratio Tester setup can comprise more
than one
ParBERT system . The number of mainframes is no indicator
whether you encounter one or several ParBERT systems. Moreover, you
can control and operate multiple ParBERT systems from one ParBERT
controller PC, even simultaneously.
What Constitutes a ParBERT System
Apart from the controller PC and its interface to the VXI frame, a
ParBERT system consists of a master clock module and at least one data
module.
Depending on its type, the master clock module can provide its clock
through front panel cables to 10 or 11 data modules. The data modules
have to have unique VXI addresses and must be plugged into adjacent
slots. Ten or eleven data modules fill one mainframe.
If you need more data modules, you can add one or two expander frames
and connect their clock modules as slaves to the master clock module.
Every expander frame requires a module for connecting it to the
controller PC, and a clock module.
Remember that only clock modules of the same type can be connected in
master-slave configuration.
This master-slave setup is still one ParBERT system. Up to 33 data
modules listen to one clock. The master clock module and its associated
data modules are automatically identified as
clockgroup 1 . Clockgroup 1
exists in every ParBERT system. Slave clock modules and their data
modules are identified as clockgroup 2 or 3, respectively.
Each clockgroup includes all data modules that are located directly to the
right of the clock module, up to the next clock module or empty slot.
Master-Slave Configurations
Clockgroups