ACCORDING to National Instruments (NI), three trends will improve the efficiency of test and measurement systems in 2009.
These three trends are software-defined instrumentation, parallel processing technologies, and new methods for wireless and semiconductor test. Of these, NI has identified software-defined instrumentation as the most significant.
These trends are expected to help engineers develop faster and more flexible automated test systems, while reducing the cost of tests.
Software-defined instrumentation (or virtual instruments) allow better performance by exploiting technological advancements in the computing field, such as multi-core processing and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
These systems usually consist of modular hardware and user-defined software, allowing the combination of standard and custom measurements with custom data processing using common hardware components.
This flexibility allows quick upgrades of the hardware and adoption of new communications standards. As a result, PXI systems Alliance is projecting more than 100,000 of their virtual instrumentation systems will be deployed by the end of 2009.
Parallel Processing technologies, also known as multi-core, has become a standard feature in automated test systems. The latest processors and high-speed bus technologies have multiple cores designed to generate, capture, analyse and process ever-larger amounts of test data.
Multi-core architectures can present a challenge when used with traditional text-based programming environments. However, programming environments like LabVIEW allow test engineers to exploit the benefits of the technology.
With software-defined instrumentation comes rapid growth in areas like wireless and protocol-aware testing. No longer do test engineers have to wait for a dominant communications standard to emerge before developing solutions. Multiple standards can be tested and catered for using common modular hardware components and custom software.