National Instruments Corporation

Christopher A Clark

Joseph E Peck

Craig M Conway

Michel G Haddad

Scott B Kovner

William R Pitts

Eric R Gardiner

Mark R Wetzel

An instrumentation system which extends channel-based switched fabric architectures to provide instrumentation signaling functions. The system comprises a chassis including slots for receiving inserted modules. The chassis includes a backplane which provides for inter-module communication, including a channel-based switched fabric bus, such as the InfiniBand bus, and instrumentation signaling lines for instrumentation signaling functions. The signaling lines may include a local bus for adjacent slot communication of analog and/or digital signals, reference clock lines for transmitting system reference clock signals to synchronize operations of inserted modules, a trigger bus including trigger lines which connect to corresponding slots to communicate trigger signals between the inserted modules for synchronizing operations between the modules, and/or a star trigger bus including dedicated trigger lines connecting a star trigger controller slot to each instrumentation slot for communicating precision trigger signals generated by an inserted star trigger controller module to the inserted modules.

Instrumentation system including a backplane having a switched fabric bus and instrumentation lines

System and method for configuring a second system in a split bridge distributed environment. A host computer system (host) includes a memory operable to store host driver software (drivers) and a CPU operable to execute the drivers. A serial bus couples the host to the second system. The host saves configuration information for the second system. The second system receives user input requesting a power down condition. The drivers enters a quiescent state, generating an indication of a power down condition. The user powers down and reconfigures the second system. The host detects a link down condition between the host and the second system, and monitors a link status between the host and second system. The user powers up the second system. The host detects a link up condition, restores second system configuration, and performs a discovery process on the second system.

System and method for reconfiguring a system coupled to a host computer through a split bridge

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Christopher A Clark