What s New in 2013 Mike Bailey LabVIEW Technical Evangelist
Building High-Performance Test, Measurement and Control Systems Using PXImc Jeremy Twaits Regional Marketing Engineer Automated Test & RF National Instruments UK & Ireland
High Performance Applications
High Volume Production Test Increasing Complexity of Exponentially Mobile Devices increasing density and complexity of devices and components Significant competitive pressure to lower cost-of-test Milliseconds improvements in test time can result in significant cost saving In certain applications the test-time is computationally bound PXI platform s software-defined architecture provides excellent platform for leveraging the latest commercial technologies
High Performance Control Advanced Commercial and Academic Research Execute complex algorithms with floating point precision Real-time and deterministic execution with Loops rates are usually in the khz range PXI platform provides large set of modules for interfacing to various sensors and actuators.
Signal Intelligence/RADAR Passive RADAR Data from numerous RF signal sources Demodulate RF signal and execute triangulation algorithm with floating point precision Near real-time execution Detailed visualisation PXI platform s provides most of the required RF measurement capability and fabric for in-system high-speed data transfer
Real Time Test/HIL Iron Bird Aircraft Simulation Numerous PXI systems either simulating electronic subsystems and/or interfacing to sensors and actuators Real-time and deterministic execution to simulate the entire real world system Loops rates are usually in the khz range
Common Requirements Increased computing capability Test times are directly proportional to code execution speed Needs certain amount of computing to accomplish the goals of the application Transfer between PXI chassis Need high-bandwidth and low-latency data transfer Implicit requirement: Commercial off-the-shelf solution to keep costs low
Available Technologies
Different Processing Technologies Technology Multi-Core CPUs FPGAs Advantages Floating Point Operations Diversity of Tasks Parallelism based on N cores Direct Connection to for In-Line Processing High Parallelism High Throughput (fixed-point operations) GP-GPUs Potentially High Throughput and Parallelism (for specific tasks)
Comparing Buses for Data Transfer Comparison Vectors: Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be transmitted in a given time Latency: The time it takes from the first bit to travel from the transmitter to the receiver Gigabit Ethernet 10 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express Reflective Memory Bandwidth Good (60-70 MB/s) Better (600-700 MB/s) Best (3 GB/s) Good (170 MB/s) Latency Good (ms range) Good (ms range) Best (µs range) Best (µs range)
Connecting PCs via System A System B CPU Memory CPU Memory PCIe to PCI/PCI-X Bridge PCIe Root Complex PCIe to PCI/PCI-X Bridge PCIe Root Complex Endpoint Endpoint Endpoint Endpoint Endpoint Endpoint Endpoint Endpoin Both systems want to be the bus masters
Using Non-Transparent Bridges System A System B CPU Memory CPU Memory PCIe to PCI/PCI-X Bridge PCIe Root Complex PCIe to PCI/PCI-X Bridge PCIe Root Complex Endpoint Endpoint Endpoint NTB Endpoint Endpoint Endpoint Endpoin Non Transparent Bridges (NTBs) logically appear as end-points in both hierarchies Allow a communication window between two systems Enable multi-gb/s data transfer rate with micro-second latency via
Communication Mechanism via NTBs 0xFFFFFFFF System A Physical Memory Space System B Physical Memory Space 0xFFFFFFFF NTB Base Address Register NTB Base Address Register System A RAM NTB System B RAM Hardware Driver Allocated Memory Hardware Driver Allocated Memory 0x00000000 0x00000000
PXI MultiComputing (PXImc)
Specification PXI MultiComputing specification released by the PXI Systems Alliance (PXISA) Leverages the PCI(e) NTBs to connect intelligent endpoints Hardware and software specifications to define a vendor interoperable solution Hardware o Base NTB requirements o Cabling Software o Standard API
PCIe Endpoint PCIe PXImc Release at NIWeek 2013 NI PXIe-8383mc PXImc Adapter Module NI PXImc 1.0 Driver OS support: Windows & LabVIEW RT ADE support: LabVIEW, C, C++ Industry s first PXImc product Specifications: x8 2.0 Interface Up to 2.7 GB/s of bandwidth 5 µs of one-way app-to-app latency 3m Copper Cable Up to 300m FO Cable (later release) Interfaces with the following released NI products: PCIe NTB PCIe Endpoint PCIe-8381 x8 2.0 PC Host Adapter PXIe-8384 x8 2.0 PXIe Daisy Chain Module
System Controller PXIe-8383mc System Controller PXIe-8384 PXIe-8383mc Links Configuration NI PXIe-8383mc PXImc Adapter Module PXI System A PXI System B NI PXIe-8384 MXI-Express Module System controller can either be an embedded controller or a PC connected via MXI Cabled PCI Express Cable (3/5m)
System Controller PXIe-8383mc PXIe-8383mc Links Configuration NI PXIe-8383mc PXImc Adapter Module PXI System A PC PCIe-8381 NI PCIe-8381 MXI-Express Adapter System controller can either be an embedded controller or a PC connected via MXI Cabled PCI Express Cable (3/5m)
Subsystem Controller Subsystem Controller Subsystem Controller Subsystem Controller Subsystem Controller Master Controller MXIe MXIe Master Controller PXImc System Topologies Master PXI System PXIe-8383mc PXIe-8384 Master PXI System PCIe-8381 x86 Compute Node x86 Compute Node x86 Compute Node x86 Compute Node Secondary PXI System Secondary PXI System Secondary PXI System Secondary PXI System Secondary PXI System PXIe-8383mc
Using PXImc Driver Details System A PXImc PXImc PXImc PXImc System B Data PXImc PXImc PXImc PXImc
PXImc Performance Application-to-Application Benchmarking System A: PXIe-1085 with PXIe-8135 with PXIe-8383mc System B: PXIe-1085 with PXIe-8135 with PXIe-8384 App Driver App Driver SW OS: Windows 7 64-bit ADE: LabVIEW HW HW HW Results (one-way): Bandwidth 2.7 GB/s Latency 5 µs
PXImc Performance Considerations PXI Chassis & Controllers offer different PCIe bandwidth performance PXIe-8135 PXIe- PCIe8381 Link Type PXIe-8383mc Performance PXIe-1085 x8 2.0 x8 2.0 x8 2.0 2.7 GB/s PXIe-1082 x4 2.0 x4 2.0 x4 2.0 1.35 GB/s PXIe-1075 x4 1.0 x4 1.0 x4 1.0 675 MB/s PXIe-1065 x4 1.0 x4 1.0 x1 1.0 168 MB/s PXIe-1062 x4 1.0 x4 1.0 PXIe-1071 x4 1.0 x4 1.0 PXIe-1078 x1 1.0 x1 1.0 Maximum signaling to the PXIe slot
PXImc Example: Hittite Microwave 64 DUT Modes ACPR, CHP, EVM @ Each Point DUT Switching & Power VST MXIe
Summary PXImc is an industry standard that allows intelligent systems to communicate via NI PXIe-8383mc is the industry s first PXImc Adapter Module Up to 2.7 GB/s of bandwidth with 5 µs one-way latency Applications such as high throughput AT, high performance control and real-time test can highly benefit by utilising PXImc
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