Chapter 1
Introduction
©
National Instruments Corporation
1-3
Hardware Description
Benefits of PXI
The PXI-8170 Series PXI/CompactPCI embedded computer is a
high-performance CompactPCI-compatible system controller that is
compatible with the PXI bus specification. PXI defines a compact modular
PC platform for industrial instrumentation. PXI leverages the PCI bus,
which is the de facto standard for today’s desktop computer software and
hardware designs. As a result, PXI users receive all the benefits of PCI
within an architecture that supports mechanical, electrical, and software
features tailored to industrial instrumentation, data acquisition, and
automation applications.
Well-suited for industrial applications, PXI leverages from the
CompactPCI specification, which defines a rugged form factor for PCI that
offers superior mechanical integrity and easy installation and removal of
hardware components. PXI products offer higher and more carefully
defined levels of environmental performance required by the vibration,
shock, temperature, and humidity extremes of industrial environments.
PXI adds mandatory environmental testing and active cooling to the
CompactPCI mechanical specification to ease system integration and
ensure multivendor interoperability.
Additionally, PXI meets the more specific needs of instrumentation users
by adding an integrated trigger bus and reference clock for multiple-board
synchronization, a star trigger bus for very precise timing, and local buses
for side-band communication between adjacent peripherals.
PXI-8170 Series Design
The PXI-8170 PXI embedded computer is a high-performance PXI system
controller with standard I/O features built in. The PXI-8170 uses
state-of-the-art technology and packaging to create a fully PC-compatible
controller for PXI. Due to the unique design and packaging, the computer
has onboard AGP video and connects to the PXI bus without the need of a
PCI-to-PCI bridge. As a result, it preserves the full 132 Mbytes/s PCI
bandwidth for other PXI boards. In addition, the PXI-8170 supports
masters in all seven available PXI slots.
The PXI-8170 design includes the standard PC ports (that is, serial,
parallel, USB, PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard). It also has two
user-accessible SO-DIMM sockets, so it is easy to upgrade memory.
The unique packaging includes a built-in 1.44 MB floppy drive and 2.5 in.
