Gigabit ethernet interface

National Instruments has announced its first high-performance dual gigabit ethernet interface for PXI Express.

The 8234 module offers 2 GB ethernet ports with up to 1000 Mbps transfer speeds per port for high-performance machine vision and dedicated LAN/LXI instrument control networks.

The module features a x4 PCI Express interconnect, providing up to 1 GBps bandwidth for real-time data streaming from a single PXI Express slot to give more available slots for other PXI instrumentation, data acquisition and bus interface modules.

Based on the Intel 82571EB gigabit ethernet controller, the 1000 Mbps ethernet ports offer a substantial performance increase from 100 Mbps fast ethernet.

Compatible with the GigE Vision camera interface for machine vision applications, the module delivers high-speed image transmission rates for standard cabling at up to 100 m. With GigE Vision support, it is the first PXI Express module for machine vision applications.

Engineers can add GigE modules to a PXI Express system to use more GigE Vision cameras with the device. As a result, they now can stream images from multiple GigE Vision cameras simultaneously to a PXI platform.

The module is also suitable for LAN and LXI instrument control applications using dedicated private networks.