LXI Standard for the Electronic Instruments

LAN extensions for instrumentation (LXI) is a standard that was developed by the LXI consortium. LXI consortium maintains the specification, promotes the standard and ensures interoperability. The main feature of the LXI standard is that it defines the communication protocols for the instrumentation and data acquisition systems that use the Ethernet. Ethernet is an accessible and versatile interface that is used for an effective communication.

LXI instrumentation combines the Ethernet enabled instrumentation with the World Wide Web and applies them to test and to the measurement of the applications. The backbone of the LXI system is the small modular instruments that are cost effective and open standard LAN. The instruments that are complying with the LXI standards offer the size and integration advantages without constraints of the card-cage architectures. The LXI standard supports the synthetic instruments and peer-peer networking that provides various capabilities of test operators. Many advantages of using these Ethernet communications are flexible packaging, high speed input and output, standard LAN connectivity address, reliable, and lower costs. It can be used in broad range of applications in military, aerospace, commercial and industrial fields.

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LAN connectivity in the LXI model simplifies maintenance and support. A problem can be diagnosed remotely over the LAN which saves money, firm are upgrades can be done very easily as they are installed over the network, test engineers can share and administer advanced features over the network. Web pages recommended by the LXI make instruments easier to integrate and there is no requirement to install software to access the remote computer. These are the features that not only save lot of time and money for an organization but also increase the productivity.

LXI modules using the host PC or the Ethernet connections have no front panel displays to display the setup or to view the results. DUT connectivity is used for the front of the module with a line power and with Ethernet input output (RJ45) at the rear of the module. LXI modules are built with self-contained power supplies, which improve their reliability and reduce the cost. These features enables widely distributed system architectures and the measurement of the IP reside either on the module in the PC or in both locations.

The other important advantage of the LXI modules is their communication with the devices that are not complying with LXI and other instruments that employ GPIB, VXI, and PXI into heterogeneous configurations. In order to make this communication to the non LXI instruments simple, the standard implements an Interchangeable Virtual instrument (IVI) driver. The standard defines an application-programming interface for the programmable devices that use programming languages. Based on this feature, many LXI instruments can be programmed using driver technologies or can be worked on directly using the SCPI commands.

The company has gained access to the consortium conformance test suite software, which is used to test the product before submitting it to the consortium compliance testing. Once the product is submitted to the compliance testing, company can choose the product tested at a Plug-Fest using a privately arranged test house.

The demand for instruments complying with LXI standards
has been drastically increased in the past few years.

There are major expansions and enhancements of the product to enhance technology and standard. This expansion has also gained popularity and there is a major acceptance of the LXI platform and the migration of the older instruments into the LXI standards.

Article published December 30th, 2009
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