Software-designed instruments speed MIL/aero test evolution
IEEE Autotestcon 2015 convenes November 2 in National Harbor, MD, and about 70 companies will be demonstrating their products and technologies. Among them will be National Instruments, which will highlight a FlexRIO controller with an embedded processor and Xilinx FPGA, a 26.5-GHz vector-signal and spectrum analyzer with 765 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth, a fast-switching RF signal generator, a high-speed serial instrument, an 18-slot PXI Express chassis with PCI 3.0 technology, and an 8-core Intel Xeon-based PXI Express embedded controller.
“We look forward to Autotestcon 2015,” said Abhay Samant, RF section manager at NI. “In fact, NI’s president, CEO, and founder, Dr. James Truchard, will be delivering a keynote at the conference and discuss why test systems must evolve to address the modern issues such as instrumentation obsolescence, increasing complexity of RF test, and the need to reduce the cost of test,” he said.
“Fundamental to this evolution is the role of synthetic or software-designed instrumentation,” Samant continued. “The inclusion of user-programmable FPGA technology into instrumentation such as oscilloscopes, digitizers, vector signal analyzers, and vector signal transceivers, in concert with the productivity gains of system design software that simplifies the programming of FPGAs has given MIL/aero test engineers a cost-effective solution for combating these challenges. For NI, we have continually seen PXI and LabVIEW increase the performance and reduce the cost of ownership of MIL/aero ATE as indicated by the strong transition from VXI to PXI over the past decade.”
Check back often for more updates on Autotestcon 2015 product and technology previews. Also, look for the November print issue of EE-Evaluation Engineering for more on the event.
