How PXI Started: The Story Behind the Standard

This video describes the story of how PXI was developed and its history and timeline with the help of Mark Wetzel of National Instruments, one of the people who worked on the first standard and has been part of its development ever since. PXI has been around for many years and it is used in many test, measurement, data acquisition and control applications. But how did PXI come about and when did it all start? Before PXI could be developed a number of technologies needed to be in place first. VXI PCI based computer test instruments, etc. After these technologies were in place the idea for PXI itself started to develop after a National Instruments sales conference. Dr Truchard (Dr T), Ron Wolfe and Carsten Thomsen discussed the concept for PXI. One of the major tasks in developing PXI was the writing of the standard. Even though the standard was released on 20th August 1997, products were still available for NIWeek that month. With PXI established, National Instruments set up an industry body called the PXI Systems Alliance, PXISA to make it an open standard and to develop and maintain the it for the future. In this way users would have a much greater choice of equipment, and PXI would gain broader industry acceptance. No standard ever stays still or it gets left behind. Once PXI was firmly established, it then evolved to PXI Express to provide improved performance With PXI under the wing of the PXI Systems Alliance, large numbers of modules along with chassis were products by a variety of vendors. Initially when it was introduced many thought that relative small PXI modules would not be able to provide the performance required. Further evolutions of PXI took place on its history and timeline with Gen 3, Gen 4 and Gen 5 and aligned to of the cPCI standard. In this way, PXI is able to keep up with the latest needs of the electronics industry where it is used for test, measurement, data acquisition and control. After the introduction of PXI Express the standard continued to move forwards. PXI provides a platform for many test, measurement, data acquisition and control applications. Its speed, flexibility, and cost make it an ideal option where computer control and multiple instruments and modules are needed. The rest, as they say is history. More details of the PXI system can be found at: https://www.electronics-notes.com/art... Website: https://www.electronics-notes.com YouTube channel:    / electronicsnotes