National Instruments (NI, ni.com/korea), which provides platform-based solutions to help engineers and scientists solve engineering problems, announced the NI PXIe-8880 controller based on Intel Xeon processors, along with the industry's first NI PXIe-1085 chassis using PCI Express Gen3 technology.

Combining 8 cores, a server-grade Intel Xeon E5-2618L v3 processor, and 24 GB/s of total system bandwidth provides superior performance for computationally intensive and parallel applications such as wireless testing, semiconductor testing, and 5G prototyping. By leveraging the flexibility of the PXI platform to replace existing controllers with the NI PXIe-8880, performance for test and measurement applications can be improved by up to twofold.

Jessica Cavazos, Head of Measurement and Metrology at global market research firm Frost & Sullivan, offered the following outlook: "Over the past 20 years, there has been a gradual shift toward performing automated tests using PXI platforms rather than traditional instruments. Now, with the introduction of Intel Xeon processor technology, we expect PXI to be adopted by an increasing number of high-performance applications."

NI has partnered with Intel to introduce server-grade Intel Xeon processors to the test and measurement market. The new embedded controller features eight cores and up to 24GB of DDR4 memory, with 24 PCI Express Gen 3 lanes connected to the backplane. This enables engineers and scientists to utilize up to twice the processing performance and bandwidth compared to previous generation controllers. Meanwhile, the new 18-slot chassis featuring PCI Express Gen 3 technology has 8 lanes per slot, providing a total system bandwidth of 24 GB/s, allowing for seamless expansion of test and measurement systems in the future.

Shahram Mehraban, Intel’s Lead in Internet of Things Development, commented on the launch: “Utilizing the latest Intel Xeon processors is a groundbreaking achievement resulting from the collaboration between Intel and NI. Maximum processing power is required to accelerate time-to-market and reduce testing costs for the Internet of Things, and the way NI utilizes PXI is critical to achieving this high performance.” When these next-generation PXI controllers and chassis are combined with LabVIEW system design software, useful insights can be easily extracted from test and measurement data collected at 24 GB/s. For more information on the new PXI Express embedded controllers and PXI Express chassis, visit www.ni.com/white-paper/52566/.