National Instruments Introduces 6.6 GHz PXI Express RF Vector Signal Analyzer and...

National Instruments Introduces 6.6 GHz PXI Express RF Vector Signal Analyzer
and Vector Signal Generator
New RF Modular Instruments and PXI Express Chassis Offer Fast, Flexible
Wireless Measurements

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 5, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NIWeek -- National
Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today announced a new RF vector signal analyzer, RF
vector signal generator and PXI Express 18-slot chassis that offer flexible RF
measurements up to 10 times faster than traditional RF instrumentation. The
new software-defined modular instruments -- the NI PXIe-5663 6.6 GHz RF vector
signal analyzer and the NI PXIe-5673 6.6 GHz RF vector signal generator -- are
complemented by the NI PXIe-1075 18-slot high-bandwidth chassis. The NI
PXIe-5663 can perform signal analysis from 10 MHz to 6.6 GHz with up to 50 MHz
of instantaneous bandwidth. The NI PXIe-5673 delivers signal generation from
85 MHz to 6.6 GHz and up to 100 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. The NI
PXIe-1075 is the industry's first PXI Express chassis with PCI Express lanes
routed to every slot providing up to 1 GB/s per-slot bandwidth and up to 4
GB/s total system bandwidth.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080805/LATU509)
The new RF modular instruments, which take full advantage of
high-performance multicore processors, are ideal for high-speed RF and
wireless automated test environments. With LabVIEW 8.6 to implement parallel
measurement algorithms on multicore CPUs, engineers can use the new RF vector
signal analyzer and RF vector signal generator to perform many common RF
measurements significantly faster than traditional instruments. For example,
the RF modular instruments can perform many individual WCDMA measurements more
than 20 times faster than traditional instruments. With the ability to
implement measurements such as adjacent-channel leakage ratio (ACLR) in only 8
ms, engineers can perform full WCDMA device characterizations up to five times
faster.
Engineers also can use these instruments to perform general-purpose
measurements faster. For example, a typical 50 MHz spectrum sweep with a 30
kHz resolution bandwidth takes just under 4 ms with an NI PXIe-8106
controller, while leading traditional instruments can take 100 ms or more for
the same measurement. As new multicore processors are released, PXI-based RF
measurement times will continue to decrease without requiring changes to the
RF instrumentation or NI LabVIEW programming, thus ensuring maximum
measurement performance, increased system longevity and decreased capital
investment.
In addition to performance, the new RF modular instruments offer
industry-leading measurement flexibility through a completely software-defined
architecture. Engineers can develop and test wireless protocols by simply
reconfiguring the software using standard-specific LabVIEW toolkits or writing
their own custom modulation algorithms. NI and National Instruments Alliance
Partners provide toolkits based on LabVIEW for many current and emerging
communications technologies, including WiMAX, GPS, WCDMA, GSM, EDGE, broadcast
video, 802.11, Bluetooth, OFDM and MIMO. In addition, engineers can integrate
PXI RF instrumentation with more than 1,500 PXI modules including high-speed
digitizers, signal generators and precision DC instruments to meet their
complete test needs.
The new 6.6 GHz modular instruments achieve these new levels of
performance using the latest commercial technologies including 16-bit
digital-to-analog converters and analog-to-digital converters used to generate
and digitize signals for superior dynamic performance. The NI PXIe-5673 RF
vector signal generator uses direct RF upconversion to provide up to 100 MHz
of RF bandwidth. Using an additional "impairments mode," engineers can take
advantage of an onboard field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to manually
adjust the gain imbalance, IQ offsets and quadrature skew quickly. With
baseband impairments optimized for a particular frequency, engineers can
achieve better than -85 dBc of carrier and image suppression. The NI PXIe-5663
RF vector signal analyzer offers passband flatness and low phase noise so it
can accurately measure modulated signals. For example, typical EVM performance
for WCDMA is 0.8 percent at 2 GHz for more than 2,600 symbols. Additionally,
typical EVM performance for WiMAX is -52 dB at 3.8 GHz.
"Now engineers can experience the performance benefits of true
software-defined RF instrumentation based on LabVIEW and the PXI platform,"
said Joseph E. Kovacs, senior RF and communications manager for National
Instruments. "With the bandwidth of PXI Express and parallel processing
capabilities of multicore processors, NI software-defined RF instrumentation
will continue to get faster as technology evolves. Our customers will benefit
from speed improvements of 10 times compared to traditional instruments today
as well as improvements that will occur as processors with more cores come to
market."
The NI PXIe-1075 18-slot chassis provides eight hybrid slots that
engineers can use for either PXI Express or PXI hybrid-slot-compatible modules
to maximize reuse of existing PXI modules. Designed for high-performance
systems, the NI PXIe-1075 chassis offers an operating temperature range of 0
to 50 degrees Celsius and provides integrated system monitoring features
including power management, fan health and temperature monitoring for the
entire chassis.
To learn more about the new 6.6 GHz RF modular instruments and
high-performance PXI Express 18-slot chassis, visit
http://www.ni.com/rf/platform.
About PXI and Modular Instruments
PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI) is an open specification governed
by the PXI Systems Alliance (http://www.pxisa.org) that defines a rugged,
CompactPCI-based platform optimized for test, measurement and control. Created
in 1997, the PXI specification is supported by more than 70 vendors offering
more than 1,500 PXI products. With PXI modular instruments, engineers specify
the essential functionality they require -- choosing from a wide variety of
measurement, signal generation, RF, power and switch modules. Then, they
configure the instruments in software for their specific measurement tasks.
PXI and modular instruments provide high-speed test execution by harnessing
the power of industry-standard PC and advanced timing and synchronization
technologies. The product family includes:
-- Digitizers/oscilloscopes (up to 24 bits, up to 2 GS/s, up to eight
channels)
-- Signal generators (up to 16 bits, 200 MS/s)
-- Digital waveform generator/analyzers (up to 400 Mb/s)
-- RF signal generators and analyzers (up to 6.6 GHz)
-- Digital multimeters (up to 71/2 digits, LCR)
-- Source measure unit (four-quadrant source, 1 nA resolution)
-- Programmable power supplies (up to 20 W, 16 bits)
-- Dynamic signal analyzers (up to 24 bits, 500 kS/s)
-- Switching (multiplexers, matrices, general-purpose and RF)

About National Instruments
National Instruments (http://www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers
and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement,
automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf
software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to
a broad base of more than 25,000 different companies worldwide, with no one
customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry
representing more than 10 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas,
NI has more than 4,800 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries.
For the past nine years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best
companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information
from the company's investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090,
e-mailing nati@ni.com or visiting http://www.ni.com/nati.
Pricing and Contact Information
NI PXIe-5663 vector signal 11500 N Mopac Expwy,
analyzer priced* from Austin, Texas 78759-3504
$22,999; euro 20,299; 3,261,000 yen Tel: (800) 258-7022,
NI PXIe-5673 vector signal Fax: (512) 683-9300
generator priced* from $23,999; E-mail: info@ni.com
euro 21,199; 3,402,000 yen
NI PXIe-1075 chassis priced*
from $5,999; euro 5,299; 725,000 yen
Web: http://www.ni.com/rf/platform

*All prices are subject to change without notice.

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Editor Contact: Julia Betts, (512) 683-8165
Reader Contact: Ernest Martinez, (800) 258-7022
SOURCE National Instruments

Julia Betts, +1-512-683-8165, or Ernest Martinez, 1-800-258-7022, both of
National Instruments