Chapter 3
Hardware Overview
PXI-PCI 8330 Series User Manual
3-2
www.natinst.com
Figure 3-1.
MXI-3 Block Diagram
MXI-3 Chassis Expansion
By plugging a PXI MXI-3 module into any of slots 2 through 8 of a
PXI/CompactPCI chassis and a PXI MXI-3 module into Slot 1 of an
additional PXI/CompactPCI chassis and connecting them with a cable,
one PXI/CompactPCI chassis can be expanded to two. The PXI MXI-3
modules detect the slot in which they reside and automatically configure
themselves as primary or secondary. In accordance with the PCI-to-PCI
Bridge specification, up to 254 chassis can be linked to a single
desktop PC.
Figure 3-2 shows the most basic MXI-3 configurations.
P
C
I
B
u
s
P
X
I
C
P
C
I
PCI/PXI
Interface
Port
Transmitter
Port
Receiver
Port
Serial-
to-Parallel
Converter
Copper/
Fiber-Optic
Transceiver
Serial
Data
Serial
Data
Parallel-
to-Serial
Converter
