Exploring VXIbus systems and instrumentation

The author attempts to increase the awareness of the advanced triggering features offered by VXI and to introduce some new system configurations to potential users. These configurations offer higher performance for repeatability of test, timing accuracy, and system throughput. A discussion of extended start/stop protocol and SYNC100 triggering illustrates how tight timing synchronization between instrument modules results in a high degree of measurement repeatability. In addition, it is noted that dramatic improvements in throughput can be achieved utilizing hardware sequencing where VXI system resources are used to minimize time-consuming intervention by the system controller. A test system comprising a digitizer, an arbitrary waveform generator, and a scanner is discussed, with emphasis on the implementation of extended start/stop protocol and hardware sequencing to potential system applications. Attention is given to the instrument features differentiating these products from their rack and stack counterparts