Niwot, CO (Marketwired). Today, the LXI Consortium announced the release of the LXI Reference Design Version 1.0 to its members. This technical blueprint will help vendors design and implement LXI interfaces into their instrumentation more quickly with lower engineering investment, in turn leading to more software re-use.
LXI members have access to the source code needed. The reference implementation includes the LXI Core plus Extended Functions including HiSLIP, Event Messaging, and IPv6. The reference design supports MS Windows, Linux, and small-scale systems. To view or download an overview of the LXI Reference Design, click here.
The LXI Consortium worked closely with TSE Plazotta (TSEP) to develop the LXI Reference Design and Implementation starting in March 2014. The Consortium conducted regular reviews and offered guidance to TSEP during development. “TSEP is very proud to have finished the LXI Reference Design. The work together with the LXI Consortium was very exciting and innovative. Working with all the different T&M Companies in the LXI Consortium was very inspiring for us. We are looking forward to the next steps and the usage of the LXI Reference Design,” said Peter Plazotta, Geschäftsführer Dipl. Ing. (FH), founder of TSEP.
To help T&M companies, the LXI General Meeting & Plug Fest in Munich, Germany, in June will provide an opportunity for intensive support. There will be a lecture on the LXI Reference Design for all interested participants, which is free and open to the public, followed by a closed support session for LXI members only.
“The existence of the Reference Design will provide a framework for the LXI Technical Committee to continue to adapt the Ethernet standards to test and measurement applications. It will enable us to create new functionality that can be tested by implementation on the Reference Design. As the Ethernet and 1588 community within the IEEE continues to evolve the standard in areas such as real time applications we will have a framework to define and test new capabilities and give our vendors a ready means of transporting those features to their LXI designs,” said David Owen, chair, LXI Technical Committee and co-chair of the LXI Reference Design Working Group.
To ensure success with vendors’ adoption of the LXI Reference Design, the LXI Consortium will implement an ongoing support plan. The support plan will help vendors design LXI interfaces more quickly with lower engineering investment in the long term, in turn leading to more software re-use.
Elements of the support plan include
- presentations and videos on how to get the full value from the reference design software;
- an LXI Vendor Forum that will share questions and answers on technical issues regarding the implementation of the reference design;
- access to the LXI Reference Design Working Group, which oversees, improves, and maintains the reference design;
- access to TSEP, the company that developed the reference design with the LXI Consortium;
- defect management and maintenance releases; and
- LXI implementation of a virtual instrument model for testing.
“I am proud to be the president of such a successful and innovative standards organization. The LXI Consortium is the first T&M standards body, I believe, to offer a reference design to its members. This will significantly lower ongoing engineering investments for existing members and lower the barrier to entry for new LXI vendors as well. And it will ultimately increase the variety and breadth of LXI products offered to customers. I want to thank the LXI Consortium members involved and TSEP for the exceptional collaboration to reach the official release milestone. I am excited about the efforts we have underway within the LXI Consortium to support our vision of global adoption and utilization of LXI in the decades to come,” said Steve Schink, president of the LXI Consortium.
The LXI Consortium (www.lxistandard.org) is a standard-setting organization in the test and measurement industry that develops, maintains, and promotes the open LXI Standard. Currently, there are more than 2,742 certified LXI products from 40 vendors in over 287 different product families.
