Eads North America, Inc.

Racal Instruments, Inc.

Timothy Elmore

Daniel Masters

Jeffrey Norris

Gary Carlson

Xiaokun Hu

Sylvester Yu

Joseph Talbert

Michael L Stockwell

Allan Knox, Ii

A test systemthat can accept a plurality of plug-in electronic cards in Xi Slotsor PXI slotsis described. The test or source measure switching systemincludes a sequencer or sequence enginewhich is fully capable of executing opcode instructions having potentially indefinite completion times and monitoring multiple asynchronous inputs simultaneously without interrupts. The sequenceris sequential and deterministic to approximately 10 microsecond resolution. The sequencerincludes a trigger router which can be a fully configurable trigger input and trigger output routing matrix. Every trigger input can be configured via several detection modes such as active high, active low, level high and level low. Also, trigger outputs can be configured to be triggered on single, multiple or auto triggers if set.

Trigger router and test system including the trigger router

A test systemthat can accept a plurality of plug-in electronic cards in Xi Slotsor PXI slotsis described. The test or source measure switching systemincludes a sequencer or sequence enginewhich is fully capable of executing opcode instructions having potentially indefinite completion times and monitoring multiple asynchronous inputs simultaneously without interrupts. The sequenceris sequential and deterministic to approximately ten microsecond resolution.

Sequencer and test system including the sequencer

A VXI product plug-in is provided herein that is capable of higher component density. The plug-in is configured to occupy two standard size slots of a standard VXI chassis, and includes two sets of three horizontally stacked modules in upper and lower sub-compartments of a front compartment of the plug-in carrier. The six modules have the capability of being populated with 480 switching relays, which provides for a 50 percent increase in the number of switches over the prior art plug-ins. The plug-in carrier includes a rear compartment that houses a VXI bus interfacing circuit, including a mezzanine board, a bridge board, and optionally a controller board, for interfacing the switch modules with a VXI backplane bus. The Plug-in further includes an internal backplane situated within the carrier between the front and rear compartments that provides an interface between the modules and the VXI bus interfacing circuit, and specifically, include a bus that can selectively couple modules together. Other aspects of the invention include an automatic updating scheme for updating the software installed on the controller card so that it has the necessary data and program code to operate new modules, an emergency reset mechanism for opening all relays pertinent to one module, and a mechanism for facilitating the insertion and removal of a VXI plug-in to and from a VXI chassis.

VXI backplane system improvements and methods

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Cypress, CA, United States of America

Timothy Elmore