Geotest chooses Autotestcon for product-debut flurry
-- Test & Measurement World, 9/21/2006 4:44:00 AM
ANAHEIM, CA. A 3U/6U combination PXI smart chassis, two new digital products, a 3-GHz RF power-analyzer module, a legacy-instrument replacement, and a new release of ATEasy were the focus of Geotest-Marvin Test Systems exhibits at Autotestcon, held here this week.
The smart-chassis news centered on the addition of new features to Geotest’s GX7100 3U/6U series. Featuring internal temperature monitoring, system power-supply monitoring, and software controlled PXI trigger mapping, the new GX71000A offers added functionality with no price increase over its predecessor, the GX7100.
“The GX7100A’s sets a new level of price/performance for 3U/6U PXI chassis. The innovative thermal
management and on-board monitoring of both temperature and system power supplies makes this the unit of choice for high density, mission-critical, high-reliability applications,” said Loofie Gutterman, Geotest president.
Available in desktop, rack-mount, and ITA configurations, the GX7100A accommodates up to 13 3U and 6U PXI instruments and a PXI controller in only 4U of rack space. The chassis includes seven 3U-only slots and seven 3U/6U slots arranged horizontally to reduce the overall size of the chassis.
The company also announced the addition of the GX5292 and GX5733 to its family of 3U PXI digital products. The GX5292 dynamic digital module expands the features and capabilities associated with the GX5280 series by incorporating dynamic direction control on a per-pin and per-vector basis. GX5733 offers both static TTL and configurable digital I/O channels with FIFO memory, which also supports digital interfaces including RS-232, RS-422, LVDS, and an optically-coupled open-collector output.
“The addition of these two PXI products to our digital instrument family further broadens our capabilities in digital test and allow us to cover more test applications,” said Mike Dewey, Geotest’s senior marketing product manager. “In particular, by leveraging the features and flexibility of our GX5280 product series, the GX5292 can address a variety of high-performance digital test needs--including real time record and playback for digital video and digital IF applications.”
The company’s new RF power analyzer, a 3U PXI card, provides the ability to perform CW and pulse power measurements, frequency measurements, and pulse-repetition period measurements on RF signals from 100 MHz to 3 GHz. Developed in partnership with ZTEC Instruments (www.ztecinstruments.com), the GX2002 includes a user interface and drivers for ATEasy and other software-development environments. The module includes an on-board DSP engine that can acquire, process, and store the frequency, pulse width, pulse repetition interval, peak power, and time tag for each RF input pulse in less than 200 microseconds.
“The GX2002 offers Geotest the opportunity to expand our product offerings into the RF market and specifically into the communications space where compact test solutions based on PXI are rapidly being deployed” said Gutterman. “We are pleased to be working with Geotest as the exclusive supplier of the GX2002 and look forward to continuing our relationship as we bring this technology to market,” said Mark Morris, VP of sales and marketing for ZTEC.
Geotest also introduced the GP1616, a 100% form-fit-function replacement for the obsolete Hewlett-Packard 8116 function generator. With the firmware of the GP1616 being fully compatible with that of the HP8116, Test Program Sets (TPSs) that make use of this legacy instrument require no code modification when replacing the HP8116 with the GP1616.
“The GP1616 provides a cost-effective solution for customers currently trying to maintain legacy HP
8116s,” said Gutterman. The GP1616 series utilizes direct digital synthesis for stability and accuracy over the full frequency range from 1 ìHz to 50 MHz. The GP1616 series provides internal storage of up to 10 complete sets of parameters and settings by using its internal nonvolatile memory.
In addition, Geotest announced the release of ATEasy 6.0, which offers an enhanced test executive that includes support for touch-screen applications, customization of user- and group-based privileges, enhanced data-logging features, an updated user interface, and support for .NET 2.0 components and LabView 8.0/8.20 VIs. Other additions include a new look for the development environment, the addition of project folders and multi-level program support, automatic form scaling, and numerous enhancements to the ATEasy development and run-time environments.
“ATEasy continues to evolve to suit the needs of the test and measurement industry,” said Ron Yazma,
VP of software development at Geotest.
