The PXI Express standard has created a unique environment for test and measurement opening up the opportunity for engineers and scientists to build test systems specific to their needs. These systems are designed around the PC infrastructure but utilize cards based on the CompacPCI standard for ease in removal and installation, to move cable connections to the front and also to provide a more rugged enclosure and card cage. To provide storage to these computer systems it is possible to attach external disk drives or “thumb” drives using USB but there are also alternatives to connect external disks using a card slot or to even install the storage devices in the card slots directly.
Conduant Corporation provides storage solutions for PXI Express covering all of these options. For high performance applications the DM-4M.2 provides up to 4TB of SSD storage using the latest technology in M.2 PCIe NVME SSD storage devices. Performance of over 3GB/s can be achieved with these boards. A lower cost but higher capacity SSD board using mSATA devices is also available with up to 8TB in a single slot. For the simple addition of disk storage space, the DM-125 offers a single 2.5″ hard drive installed in a single slot with up to 2TB capacity. A 3 slot version is also available to allow installation of 4-6 hard drives.
External RAID devices can also be attached to a PXI Express system by utilizing cabled PCI Express. A host adapter can be installed in a single PXI Express slot to allow attachment of an external RAID chassis. The Conduant LTXe utilizes the latest RAID technology with 16 2.5″ hard drives in a 1U x 20″ deep chassis. These system provide high performance storage with the reliability of RAID in a small space to complement the PXI Express system.
