High-speed data recording and playback with PXI

Military and aerospace test systems used in the areas of signal intelligence (SIGINT) and surveillance have long required high-speed data recording and playback capabilities. The recording and playback throughputs necessary for these applications continue to increase as communications standards evolve. Moreover, military and aerospace test systems that did not require high-speed data recording and playback capabilities in the past, such as general-purpose automated test equipment (ATE), now requires this functionality. The PXI platform, since it is based on the high-bandwidth PCI and PCI express buses, enables data to be streamed to and from a single instrument at up to 2 GBytes/s. A chassis of PXI instruments can stream data in and out at up to 6 GBytes/s. This paper examines the technical details associated with high-speed data recording and playback with PXI, which include streaming data with the PCI bus, streaming data with the PCI express bus, device memory streaming, controller memory streaming, controller hard drive recording and playback, and direct-to-disk controller recording and playback.