AXIe standard brings scalability to instrumentation

MUNICH, Germany — Aiming at higher performance per volume unit and better scalability for test and instrumentation applications, a group of equipment vendors has launched Advanced TCA Extensions for Instrumentation and Test (AXIe) as an open industry standard.

AXIe is based on the well-established ATCA board computer form factor standard and is supposed to leverage the properties of existing standard platforms and protocol definitions such as PXI, LXI and IVI. Offering better scalability and modularity than existing approaches, AXIe also promises to help design engineers to offer better performance per rack inch than existing solutions, said Agilent General Manager, Modular Product Operation Larry DesJardin who presented the standard-to-be at the Productronica trade fair in Munich. Besides Agilent, founding members of the AXIe consortium are Aeroflex and Test Evolution Corp. The consortium is open for interested members.

AXIe extends ATCA by adding layered definitions for hardware and software extensions. The nomenclature will be AXIe x.n with x representing the version number and n a set of definitions aiming at specific vertical applications.

For the start, the consortium has defined a set of features aiming at general instrumentation applications. It includes core triggers, timing and a local bus, baptized AXIe 1.0. On top of it, with AXIe1.1, the first vertical application definition is ready for deployment; it is dedicated to semiconductor test. Other future definition sets could be created for applications such as network test, physics measurements, or liquid cooling, suggested DesJardin.

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AXIe Consortium

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