DESIGN VIEW is the summary of the complete DESIGN SOLUTION contributed article, which begins on Page 2.
Choosing the right platform (or combination of platforms) for your ATE system can save you money and labor—plus improve measurement results. You can assemble an instrumentation system in several different ways. One option is to "rack and stack" standalone boxes and connect them to a computer via the well known General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB), also called the IEEE-488 bus. This makes it simple to swap out instruments and create new configurations quickly and easily.
Another route is to use instruments on VME eXtensions for Instrumentation (VXI) and PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI) cards that plug into a backplane. Such a solution seems ideal, with the computer and the instruments it controls all in the same card cage. However, not all instruments are availlable as plug-in cards.
Experience has shown that it's seldom possible to put together a complete system using all bus-based or all standalone instruments. Generally, there will be some of both.
This article reviews each of the platforms in detail, discussing their benefits and limitations. It also gets into the mixing and matching of the buses for an optimal solution.
With so many choices, it's possible to put together a system to meet just about any need. It's nice to know, too, that these technologies will stick around for a long time.
Full article begins on Page 2