National Instruments PXI-8196 PXI Controller

Feature with the integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900, the National Instruments PXI-8196 (Part Numbers: 779911-00, 779911-01, 779912-00, 779912-01) is a microprocessor-based Embedded Controller. This Controller is equipped with a 2.0 GHz Pentium M 760 processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 40 GB Fast Ultra ATA100 interface internal hard drive. The PXI 8196 Controller includes an external SMB connection that can be used as a trigger input/output or watchdog timer. The SMB connector can be used to pass timing and trigger signals to and from the PXI trigger bus in a PXI system.

This Controller is available in two versions to empower the user to cater to different environmental conditions. The first version of the NI PXI-8196 Embedded Controller is designed to be operated within an operating temperature range of 5 to 50 °C. The extended-temperature range of this Controller has an operating temperature range from 0 to 55 °C. The National Instruments PXI-8196 uses DDR2 SDRAM. Thus, this Embedded Controller is a reliable choice for data-intensive applications. In its standard configuration, the PXI-8196 comes with 512 MB of RAM. However, the user can have the total RAM upgraded to 1 or 2 GB.

The PXI-8196 operates using diverse software including the NI LabVIEW, Measurement Studio, LabWindows/CVI, NI-VISA-which is a uniform API for communicating and controlling serial, GPIB, VXI, PXI and other instruments.The NI PXI-8196 Controller offers almost all the standard and extended I/O peripherals, including: the VGA (15-pin DSUB) for the video interface, COM1 (9-pin DSUB) for the serial interface, LAN (RJ45) for the Ethernet interface, Parallel Port (36-pin champ) for the parallel interface, USB 4-pin Series A stacked receptacle for the USB interface (four ports), Trigger (SMB) for the PXI trigger interface, GPIB (25-pin Micro D) for the GPIB controller interface, ExpressCard/34 slot for the ExpressCard/34 module interface.

The NI PXI-8196 comes equipped with an ExpressCard/34 slot, which can be used to add more peripherals to a system. This Embedded Controller does not have a PS/2 connector, but a PS/2 mouse and PS/2 keyboard can still be used with the help of a USB Y-splitter cable. The PXI-8196 Controller is offered with Microsoft Windows XP in its standard configuration.

PXI-8196 Obsolete Status has been announced by National Instruments, but the Controller will still be available for purchase and repairs by Apex Waves.