PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation

PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation, short PXI, was launched by National Instruments and is a further development of the standards PCI and CompactPCI ( cPCI ) for the measurement and automation technology. By now offer more than 50 manufacturers of products for this bus system. The standard is managed by the PXI Systems Alliance, shortly PXISA.

A PXI system consists of a housing with plug-in slots 4, 8 or more modules. A module is called the controller, ie the unit with processor, hard drive, memory, etc. In addition to the controller then further modules such as data acquisition cards with analog and digital inputs and outputs, modules for image acquisition or motor control, etc., can be incorporated.

In addition to the data bus ( compatible with PCI ) contains a PXI system even more buses for synchronous clocks and triggers several plug ( measuring instruments). A special extension represents Analog Bus Extension for PXI