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Elaborating on Instrumentation 2.0
April 2, 2007
My “Editor’s Note” in the current issue recounts a discussion with technologists from National Instruments on the “Instrumentation 2.0” concept. Here are some additional thoughts, information, and links.
According to Eric Starkloff, National Instruments’ director of product marketing, and Craig Anderson, NI’s product marketing group manager for test software, Instrumentation 2.0 represents a stage in the evolution of virtual instrumentation, which in turn is a superset of the “synthetic instrument” concept promoted by the Defense Department’s Office of Technology Transition. For more on synthetic instruments, read Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Mark Holler’s column, also in the current issue.
As I mentioned in my “Editor’s Note,” Starkloff commented on why products such as the Apple iPod need a new test approach (he didn’t say specifically that Apple is using Instrumentation 2.0”), quoting Time magazine’s iPhone description: “Suddenly, the interface isn't fixed and rigid, it's fluid and molten. Software replaces hardware.”
Starkloff explained that unlike traditional phones, with a pushbutton user interface fixed in plastic, devices like the iPhone are very software centric, with completely software-based UI.
Software-centric products lend themselves to frequent design changes as their designers pursue future markets defined by Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail: “The future…is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bit stream.” With many functions to test as their designs quickly evolve in pursuit of niche markets, said Starkloff, engineers need to adapt their test systems quickly as well.
Instrumentation 2.0 is a software based approach to instrumentation empowering engineers to create user-defined results from raw measurement data. The goal is to move from a measurement paradigm with fixed instruments that give you the parameters your instrument vendor thinks you want to a paradigm where you derive the results you need from raw data. Ideally, that raw data would come from an infinite-resolution, infinite-speed ADC streaming data over an infinite-bandwidth bus to an infinitely powerful central processor. With today’s high-performance data converters and buses like PXI Express, we are getting close.
NI’s Craig Anderson pointed out that Instrumentation 2.0 not only allows you to derive the measurements you want, you can also compare simulated and measured data.
Starkloff said that NI data shows that Instrumentation is catching on. Based on NI’s sales of GPIB controllers (and allowing a multiplier of 2.6 instruments per controller, on average), standalone and modular instrument unit sales have neared parity.
Of course, we still don’t have infinite-performance data converters and buses. As Dan Strassberg, who covers test and measurement for EDN, pointed out during the meeting with Starkloff and Anderson, PCI Express can’t stream data fast enough to a central processor to test PCI Express devices. Anderson allowed that the processing could be distributed—the key is that it be software-programmable by the user, not only by the instrument vendor.
Posted by Rick Nelson on April 2, 2007 | Comments (1)
