CN102088384A - Standardized multifunctional LXI (LAN based extensions for instrumentation) equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

A standardized multifunctional LXI device belongs to the field of automatic testing. The invention aims to solve the problems of high design complexity, single function and poor expandability of existing LXI devices. The standardized multifunctional LXI device of the present invention comprises base plate, integrated trigger unit, M bus controller, ARM processor and n function boards, and described integrated trigger unit, M bus controller, ARM processor and n function boards The boards are all arranged on the bottom plate, the integrated trigger unit, the M bus controller and n function boards are respectively connected to the M bus, the integrated trigger unit and the M bus controller are respectively connected to the ARM processor bus, and the integrated trigger unit The output end of the ARM processor is connected with the trigger control input end of the ARM processor, and the output end of the M bus controller is connected with the M bus control input end of the ARM processor. The invention is used for automatic testing.

Description

A standardized multifunctional LXI device

technical field

The invention relates to a standardized multifunctional LXI device, which belongs to the field of automatic testing.

Background technique

In September 2004, LXI (LAN eXtension for Instrumentation) standard was jointly launched by American Agilent and VXI together with dozens of famous instrument manufacturers in the world, which is currently the only automatic test system platform technology based on network architecture. It integrates the built-in measurement technology of a desktop instrument, the connectivity of PC standard I/O, and the modularization and small size of the card frame system; LXI inherits all the advantages of LAN, and with the development of LAN, its performance will improve It will be further improved. On this basis, LXI has advantages in timing, triggering, cooling, electromagnetic compatibility, etc.; LXI is an open standard built on proven and mature standards in many industries and testing fields. Using it to build ATS has good inclusiveness and versatility; LXI equipment has a high degree of intelligence and has the equivalence of LAN equipment. It can not only be used for the establishment of centralized test systems, but also more suitable for the development of distributed test systems. Compared with previous test buses (such as GPIB, VXI and PXI), LXI technology has higher openness, versatility, intelligence and flexibility, and is one of the main technologies supporting the next generation of distributed test systems.

The hardware device is the carrier carrying various specific technical realizations, and the LXI device must realize the interface function conforming to the LXI specification. In the past, when developing and testing bus device interfaces, because the interface logic is relatively simple and the software protocol is not complicated, we usually use programmable logic devices or dedicated interface chips to design instrument interfaces; however, the LAN interface protocol adopted by the LXI specification is relatively The previous bus interface is much more complex, especially the network protocol stack cannot be fully implemented by hardware, if the previous bus instrument interface development method is used, the LAN interface function of the LXI device cannot be realized.

At present, embedded system design technology can well solve the problem of LAN interface development of LXI equipment. Usually, the design of embedded system usually adopts 32-bit embedded processor chip, supports multiple embedded operating systems, can easily realize the function of LAN interface, and also makes the instrument have higher intelligence.

Due to the high complexity of embedded system design, if this technology is used to design LXI instruments, the designer must be proficient in many aspects of technology, including: embedded system software and hardware design technology, LXI interface technology, test instrument design technology, instrument driver technology, etc. For instrument designers, the development of LXI devices will become very burdensome. In order to solve this problem, standardized and modularized design ideas can be adopted. According to the characteristics of LXI equipment, LXI equipment can be divided into several relatively independent units, and standardized interfaces can be used to package them, so that LXI equipment can be modularized. Different designers only need to develop and maintain related units, and there is no overlapping of functions between each unit. When designing an instrument, it only needs to simply combine each unit to integrate into a new LXI device, which simplifies This reduces the design complexity of LXI devices.

In addition, due to the use of the embedded system, the information processing capability of the LXI interface unit is greatly enhanced. Even to develop a LXI device with simple functions, a powerful LXI interface is also required, which will cause a waste of LXI interface resources; in addition, with the advancement of technology, the test task becomes more and more complicated. Similarly, The functions of test instruments are also required to be more comprehensive and complex. Therefore, multifunctional instruments will be an important direction for the development of automatic test equipment in the future.

Contents of the invention

The object of the present invention is to provide a standardized multifunctional LXI device to solve the problems of high design complexity, single function and poor expandability of the existing LXI device.

The standardized multifunctional LXI device of the present invention comprises base plate, integrated trigger unit, M bus controller, ARM processor and n function boards, and described integrated trigger unit, M bus controller, ARM processor and n function boards boards are set on the bottom plate,

The integrated trigger unit, the M-bus controller and n function boards are respectively connected to the M-bus, and the integrated trigger unit and the M-bus controller are respectively connected to the ARM processor bus. The trigger control input terminal of the ARM processor is connected with the output terminal of the M bus controller and the M bus control input terminal of the ARM processor.

Advantages of the present invention:

1. Reduce the difficulty of LXI equipment development and improve the efficiency of development;

2. A standard trigger model is provided for the test instrument, and the LXI trigger function is made into an independent and unified standardized functional unit, which is integrated on the LXI interface backplane. There is no need to design complex trigger functions for each M module;

3. Good interchangeability of equipment functions;

4. Strong expansion ability.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Specific embodiment one: the present embodiment is described below in conjunction with Fig. 1, and a kind of standardized multifunctional LXI equipment described in the present embodiment includes base plate, integrated trigger unit 2, M bus controller 3, ARM processor 4 and n functions Board 1, the integrated trigger unit 2, M bus controller 3, ARM processor 4 and n function boards 1 are all arranged on the base plate,

The integrated trigger unit 2, the M bus controller 3 and n function boards 1 are respectively connected to the M bus, and the integrated trigger unit 2 and the M bus controller 3 are respectively connected to the ARM processor bus. The output end is connected with the trigger control input end of the ARM processor 4 , and the output end of the M-bus controller 3 is connected with the M-bus control input end of the ARM processor 4 .

It can further include FLASH5 and SDRAM6, and FLASH5 and SDRAM6 are connected to the ARM processor bus respectively.

It can also further include EEPROM7, real-time clock 8, Ethernet transceiver 9 and LAN interface 10, EEPROM7 and real-time clock 8 are connected with ARM processor 4 by FC bus, Ethernet transceiver 9 is hooked on the ARM processor bus, The output end of Ethernet transceiver 9 is connected with the input end of ARM processor 4, and the trigger input and output end of Ethernet transceiver 9 is connected with the trigger input and output end of integrated trigger unit 2, and the Ethernet input and output of Ethernet transceiver 9 The terminal is connected with the input and output terminals of the LAN interface 10.

It can also further include a trigger bus unit 11 and an external trigger unit 12, the input and output terminals of the trigger bus unit 11 are connected with the integrated trigger signal input and output terminals of the integrated trigger unit 2, and the input and output terminals of the external trigger unit 12 are connected with the integrated trigger unit 2. The input and output terminals of the external trigger control signal are connected.

Function board 1 selects M module.

The integrated trigger unit 2 and the M-bus controller 3 are constructed by FPGA.

The real-time clock 8 selects RTC for use.

Ethernet transceiver 9 selects DP83640.

The backplane and the function board are connected by the standard M module bus interface. The backplane realizes the complete LXI interface function, and the functional unit adopts the M module design, which is only related to the function. In this way, the design of the LXI interface unit and the functional unit of the instrument is completely separated, so that the LXI interface backplane and the M module can be independently designed, developed, maintained, and upgraded, avoiding the intersection of the two parts of the function, and reducing the difficulty of LXI equipment development. Improve the efficiency of development. For example, the hardware development of the M module does not depend on the LXI interface backplane. We can use a more convenient debugging platform for debugging. After the device driver is developed, it can be used.

The integrated trigger unit simplifies the logic design of the M module. Triggering is one of the most basic features of an instrument. No matter what kind of instrument it is, it needs a corresponding trigger to work normally. That is to say, the work of the instrument is driven by the trigger. The more powerful the trigger function of the instrument, the more flexible the application in the system and the higher the test efficiency; on the contrary, the weaker the trigger function of the instrument, the more rigid the use of the instrument. Before the LXI specification, some specifications only standardized the electrical function of the trigger signal, and did not involve the working model and software interface of the trigger function. Therefore, the trigger function design of different types of instruments produced by different manufacturers is also very different. Large instrument manufacturers can provide a relatively unified model for the instrument, such as Agilent, while most instrument manufacturers only support relatively simple or refer to the trigger model of a large manufacturer for instrument design. Compared with the trigger function of domestic test equipment It is more simple and primitive, and when the test system is integrated, the trigger application is relatively backward, making it difficult to optimize the test task, resulting in low test efficiency. In addition to providing users with rich and easy-to-use trigger resources, the LXI specification also provides a standard trigger model for test instruments for the first time. At the same time, it standardizes the trigger application interface in the "Synchronization Interface Specification". Using these resources, we completely The trigger function of LXI can be made into an independent and unified standardized functional unit, which can be integrated on the LXI interface backplane. Under the new instrument architecture, we no longer need to design complex trigger functions for each M module, we only need to connect the trigger signal on the LXI interface board to the M module to complete the test action, and the processing of the trigger signal is completely done by The standard unit agent on the LXI interface backplane is enough.

The equipment functions are interchangeable. Due to the standardized design, the LXI interface backplane is only related to the LXI interface function, and the standard M module interface is used between the function backplane, and there is a one-to-many relationship between the two. Insert the M module on the backplane to form corresponding instruments. Whether it is due to the backplane or the M module that needs to be updated or replaced for some reason, it does not affect the use of the other party. If a standardized software design is adopted, we can meet the compatibility with the original system tasks without changing any existing software programs.

Strong expansion ability. From the perspective of the automatic test system's demand for general-purpose test instruments, multi-functional instruments are an important direction for the development of automatic test equipment in the future. The density of test functions per unit volume is increasing, and the test functions are becoming stronger and stronger. For some small test tasks, a multi-functional instrument can meet their test needs. In addition, because the LXI device itself is an intelligent instrument, compared with other types of bus instruments, the information processing potential is very powerful, and it is also suitable for the multi-functional management of the instrument. Therefore, when designing the LXI interface backplane, we chose the functional unit of the M module bus expansion instrument. A 1U high full rack width LXI device can expand up to 8 M modules. Currently we are designing a 1U high half rack width LXI device , only the backplane with dual M module interface has been developed. In terms of the use of M modules, there is no restriction on inserting M modules on the LXI interface backplane. M modules of the same type or different types can completely coexist in the same LXI device, which is only related to the application. The expansion ability is also reflected in the expansion and update of software (including firmware) functions. Through the remote download function supported by LXI equipment, we can upgrade the internal software or firmware of the instrument without disassembling the instrument, thereby improving the ability of the instrument.

The required voltage and maximum power of the equipment are fixed, and the power supply can be standardized. The M module specification requires the use of 5V (1A), ±12V (200mA) power supply, while the upper part of the LXI backplane is all digital signals, the required power supply is 5V or converted from 5V, and the current is less than 1A. In this way, we can calculate the type of power supply and the maximum power consumption required by the entire LXI device according to the number of M modules, and can carry out standardized design on the required power supply. For example, the power requirements of the LXI device with dual M interfaces we are designing are:

5V(1A+1A*2)+12V0.2A*2+|(-12V)0.2A*2|=24.6W.

Claims (8)

1. standardized multi-functional LXI equipment, it is characterized in that: it comprises base plate, comprehensive trigger element (2), M bus control unit (3), arm processor (4) and n feature board (1), described comprehensive trigger element (2), M bus control unit (3), arm processor (4) and n feature board (1) all are arranged on the base plate

Comprehensive trigger element (2), M bus control unit (3) and n feature board (1) are articulated in respectively on the M bus, comprehensive trigger element (2) and M bus control unit (3) also are articulated on the arm processor bus respectively, the output of comprehensive trigger element (2) links to each other with the triggering control input end of arm processor (4), and the output of M bus control unit (3) links to each other with the M bus control input end of arm processor (4).

2. a kind of standardized multi-functional LXI equipment according to claim 1 is characterized in that it also comprises FLASH (5) and SDRAM (6), and FLASH (5) and SDRAM (6) are articulated in respectively on the arm processor bus.

3. a kind of standardized multi-functional LXI equipment according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, it also comprises EEPROM (7), real-time clock (8), ethernet transceiver (9) and LAN interface (10), EEPROM (7) links to each other with arm processor (4) by the FC bus with real-time clock (8), ethernet transceiver (9) is articulated on the arm processor bus, the output of ethernet transceiver (9) links to each other with the input of arm processor (4), the triggering input/output terminal of ethernet transceiver (9) links to each other with the triggering input/output terminal of comprehensive trigger element (2), and the Ethernet input/output terminal of ethernet transceiver (9) links to each other with the input/output terminal of LAN interface (10).

4. a kind of standardized multi-functional LXI equipment according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, it also comprises triggers bus unit (11) and external trigger unit (12), the input/output terminal that triggers bus unit (11) links to each other with the comprehensive starting signal input/output terminal of comprehensive trigger element (2), and the input/output terminal of external trigger unit (12) links to each other with the external trigger control signal input/output terminal of comprehensive trigger element (2).

5. a kind of standardized multi-functional LXI equipment according to claim 1 is characterized in that feature board (1) is selected the M module for use.

6. a kind of standardized multi-functional LXI equipment according to claim 1 is characterized in that, comprehensive trigger element (2) and M bus control unit (3) are made up by FPGA.

7. a kind of standardized multi-functional LXI equipment according to claim 1 is characterized in that real-time clock (8) is selected RTC for use.

8. a kind of standardized multi-functional LXI equipment according to claim 1 is characterized in that ethernet transceiver (9) is selected DP83640 for use.

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