Introduction to AXIe

A new emerging test and measurement standard called AXIe, AdvancedTCA eXtensions for Instrumentation, is expected to find wide acceptance within the Automatic Test Equipment community as it offers many key benefits. It is expected that a large number of stimulus, measurement, signal conditioning, acquisition and processing modules will become available from a range of different suppliers. AXIe uses AdvancedTCA^® as its base standard, but then borrows from test and measurement industry standards such as PXI, IVI, and LXI, which were designed to facilitate cooperation and plug-and-play interoperability between instrument suppliers. This enables AXIe systems to easily integrate with other test and measurement equipment. AXIe's large board footprint, available power and efficient cooling to the module payload allows high density in a 19-inch rack space, enabling the development of high-performance instrumentation in a density unmatched by other instrumentation form factors. Channel synchronization between modules is flexible and provided by AXIe's dual triggering structures: a parallel trigger bus, and radially-distributed, time-matched point-to-point trigger lines. Inter-module communication is also provided with a local bus between adjacent modules allowing data transfer rates up to 10 Gbits/s in each direction, for example between front-end digitizer modules and DSP banks. The AXIe form factor provides the power and cooling necessary to embed high performance computing. A range of compute blades are available today in an AdvancedTCA^® form factor that provide low cost alternatives to the development of custom signal processing modules. The availability of both LAN and PCIe (PCI Express) fabrics allow the interconnection between modules, as well as high industry-standard highperformance data paths to external host computer systems. AXIe delivers a powerful environment for custom module development for specific and unique applications. As in the case of VXIbus and PXI before it, commercial development kits are expected to be offered from the industry. This paper will give an overview of the architectural elements of AXIe, the compatibility model with AdvancedTCA^®, and measured performance of many of the AXIe structures.