3U quad-core PXI controller

National Instruments has released the NI PXI-8110 embedded controller, which claims to be the industry's first 3U quad-core embedded controller for PXI systems. Featuring a 2.26 GHz Intel Core2 Quad processor Q9100, up to 4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 RAM and a high-performance 7200 rpm drive, it also claims to be the industry's fastest embedded controller in the 3U PXI class.

The PXI-8110 provides an up to 80% performance improvement over dual-core controllers with similar CPU clock frequencies for applications that are optimised to use the controller's four processing cores.

Additionally, engineers and scientists can capitalise on multithreaded application development by combining the multicore support and parallelism of National Instruments' graphical system design software with the controller's advanced functionality.

Because the controller features a platform on which an application can distribute processing loads across four CPU cores simultaneously, it can significantly reduce test times for applications that require intensive signal and data processing such as RF protocol testing and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations.

These applications can also replicate specific tests or processes to run on separate CPU cores and effectively double system throughput.