National Instruments PXI-8186 PXI Controller
National Instruments PXI-8186 (part numbers: 778755-00, 778755-01, 778755-02778755-33778842-00, 778842-01778842-02778842-33) has an integrated GPIB (IEEE 488.2) interface and is an embedded controller based on Pentium 4 that can be used in any PXI or CompactPCI system. The powerful hardware configuration of this controller makes it a feasible solution for a wide range of intensive applications. The NI PXI-8186 is equipped with a 2.2 GHz Pentium 4-M CPU. This PXI controller has 512 KB of on-chip cache, 256 MB of RAM, and 30 GB of hard drive.
In order to provide realistic, intense 3D graphics, fast rendering, high detail, and smooth motion, the PXI 8186 controller adopts the integrated Intel Extreme graphics kernel. Therefore, users will not need additional video cards. This controller uses double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM). SDRAM doubles the memory bandwidth because it transfers data twice per cycle. The NI PXI 8186 is equipped with a 10/100BaseTX port, an IEEE 1284 parallel port, a PCI-GPIB/TNT port, two USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 connector, two serial ports, and a 2.5-inch 9.5mm 30 GB internal hard drive.
The standard version of the NI PXI 8186 embedded controller operates at temperatures ranging from 5 to 40 ° C. However, the PXI controller also offers an extended temperature version (part number: 778842-01), which operates from 0 to 55 ° C. In terms of its physical size, PXI-8186 is a 3U sized PXI module with a size of 8.1 × thirteen × 21.6 centimeters. In addition, the weight of the device is 2.2 pounds. The NI PXI-818 requires the installation of one system slot and three controller slots in a compatible PXI chassis.
PXI-8186 uses multiple software for operation. One of them is NI-DAQ, which hosts a function library that can be used from the application development environment (ADE) of your choice, such as LabVIEW, Measurement Studio, and LabWindows/CVI. Another software running on the device is NI-VISA, which is used to create applications and instrument drivers.
