PXI Overview...

[asabnis@tegam.com]

PXI stands for PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation. It is originally introduced in 1997 by National Instruments.
PXI combines the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) electrical bus with the rugged, modular Eurocard mechanical packaging of CompactPCI and adds specialized synchronization buses and key software features.
PXI is designed for measurement and automation applications that require high-performance and a rugged industrial form-factor. There are large number of vendors who make PXI modules and it is easy to integrate them into a single PXI system. A typical 3U PXI module measures approximately 4x6 inches (100x160mm) in size, and a typical 8-slot PXI chassis is 4U high and half rack width, full width chassis contain up to 18 PXI slots.
PXI Express technology is the latest addition to the PXI platform. The PXI Express Specification integrates PCI Express signaling into the PXI standard, which increases backplane bandwidth from 132 MB/s to 6 GB/s, a 45 times improvement.