Evaluating New Technologies for Test and Measurement PCI

Evaluating New Technologies for Test and Measurement: PCI Express, Multicore Processing, and Microsoft Windows Vista NIDays 2007 Worldwide Virtual Instrumentation Conference

Evaluating Test and Measurement Buses Max Bandwidth (MB/s) Increasing (Improving) Bandwidth 10, 000 Good Better Best PCI Express (x 4) 1, 000 PCI/PXI (32/33) Gigabit Ethernet 100 10 Hi-Speed USB IEEE 1394 a Fast Ethernet USB 1. 1 1 10, 000 1, 000 VME/VXI GPIB (HS 488) GPIB (488. 1) 100 10 1 Approximate Latency (μs) Decreasing (Improving) Latency 3 0. 1

Increasing Bus Bandwidth Opens New Applications 24 Multichanne l Audio Number of Bits 20 IF Communicati ons 16 Data Acquisition 12 Instrument Control 8 High-Speed Imaging PCI ISA 1 M High. Resolutio n Digitizers 10 M 100 M PCI 1 G Express 10 G Sample Rate (S/s) 4 100 G

PCI Express Overview • Evolutionary version of PCI – Uses same software model as PCI, ensuring compatibility • Inside every new PC and notebook today • Low cost – built into PC chipsets • Serial interconnect at 2. 5 Gb/s – – PCI transactions are packetized and then serialized Low-voltage differential signaling, point-to-point, 8 B/10 B encoded Bandwidth is dedicated PER slot and in BOTH directions Multiple lanes can be grouped together to form links • x 1 (by 1) has bandwidth of 250 MB/s/direction • x 16 (by 16) has bandwidth of 4 GB/s/direction • Scalable interconnect – chip-to-chip, backplane, or cabled • Roadmap for longevity with Gen-2 clocking (5 Gb/s) 5

Dedicated Bandwidth per Device 6

Software Layer • PCI software-model compatible – 100% OS and driver-level compatible – PCI enumeration, configuration, and power management mechanisms – Existing operating systems boot with no changes (including BIOS) • PCI Express hierarchy mapped using PCI elements – Host bridges – P 2 P bridges – All enumerated using the regular PCI device configuration space • PCI capability pointer for PCI Express-specific extensions 7

Data Clock Frame Sequence Packet Number Request CRC Device B Data Device A Physical Layer Frame x 1 Lane Frame CRC Packet Sequence Frame Request Number Data Clock • Point-to-point, differential interconnect with two endpoints • Low-voltage signaling, AC coupled • Two unidirectional links, no sideband signals • Bit rate: >2. 5 Gb/s/pin/direction and beyond • Clocking: Embedded clock signaling using 8 B/10 B encoding • Link widths (per direction): x 1, x 2, x 4, x 8, x 12, x 16, x 32 • Gen-2 (5 Gb/s) speed increase 8

PCI Express and PCI Slots on a Motherboard 3 x 1 PCI Express Slots 1 x 16 PCI Express Slots 2 PCI Slots 9

PCI Express Cards NI PCIe-GPIB NI PCIe-1429 PCI Express Graphics Car Instrument Control Image Acquisition (x 16) (x 1) (x 4) Examples of Different PCI Express Link Widths: x 1, x 4, and x 16 10

Up-Plugging and Down. Plugging Up-plugging: Installing boards in higher-lane slots • Allowed by PCI Express • Example: Plugging a x 4 module in a x 8 slot • Caveat: Motherboard vendors are only required to support a x 1 data rate in this configuration – Full-bandwidth support will be vendor specific – Example: x 16 slots may operate as a x 1, even for x 4 cards Down-plugging: Installing boards in lower-lane slots • Physically prevented by the design of the slots and connectors for the desktop form factor • Allowed in PXI Express and Compact. PCI Express 11

Express. Card – PCI Express for Laptops • Both x 1 PCI Express and Hi-Speed USB signaling on host • 34 mm and 54 mm form factors • PXI embedded controllers include Express. Card/34 slot 12

PCI Express Industry Adoption • First PCI Express desktops shipped mid 2004 • First Express. Card laptops shipped early 2005 • PCI and PCI Express are side-by-side in all Intel/Dell roadmaps • Primary consumer driver is graphics processing (gamers, video editing) – PCI Express x 16 replacing AGP 13

National Instruments Shipping Products • • • NI PCIe-GPIB (x 1) NI PCIe-6251 M Series (x 1) NI PCIe-6259 M Series (x 1) NI PCIe-1429 Camera Link (x 4) NI PCIe-1430 Camera Link (x 4) NI PCIe-8361 MXI-Express (x 1) NI PCIe-8362 MXI-Express (x 1) NI PCIe-8371 MXI-Express (x 4) NI PCIe-8372 MXI-Express (x 4) NI Express. Card-8360 MXI-Express 14

PCI Express Advantages • • Software compatibility with PCI High bandwidth (up to >4 GB/s) Scalable bandwidth Dedicated bandwidth per slot Low latency Peer-to-peer communication Internal and external operation Long life (20+ years in the mainstream market) 15

PXI Express – Integrating PCI Express into the PXI Backplane • Up to 6 GB/s backplane and 2 GB/s slot bandwidth • Backward compatibility – Complete software compatibility – Hybrid slot definition – install modules with either PCI or PCI Express signaling in a single slot • Enhanced synchronization capabilities – 100 MHz differential clock, differential triggering 16

PXI and Hybrid Slots Ensure Compatibility 17

PXI Slots 18

Hybrid Slots 19

PXI Express Hybrid Slots • x 8 PCIe (up to 2 GB/s) • Differential Clk. 100 & Star Triggers • Power • Trigger Bus • Star Trigger • Clk. 10 • Reserved Pins • Local Bus (typically unuse 32/33 PCI (132 MB/s per system) PXI Express Hybrid PXI 20

Hybrid Slot Flexibility PXI Express Peripheral Module 32 -Bit Compact. PCI Module Hybrid Slot Compatible PXI Module 21

NI PXIe-1062 Q Hybrid Chassis Hybrid Slot Configuration PXI: 2 PXI or PXIe: 3 PXIe Only: 4 Hybrid Slots 22 6 H 5 7 H 8

PXI-8105 Dual-Core Embedded Controller • • • Industry’s highest-performance embedded controller Up to 100% higher performance for multithreaded apps 2. 0 GHz dual-core Intel Core Duo processor T 2500 Dual-channel 667 MHz DDR 2 RAM Gigabit Ethernet Express. Card/34 slot 4 Hi-Speed USB ports 60 GB SATA hard drive DVI-I video 23

NI PXI-1033 Chassis with Integrated MXI Express Controller • 110 MB/s sustained throughput with MXI-Express remote control • Rugged, compact package with slots for five peripheral modules • Quiet acoustic noise emissions as low as 38 d. BA • Kit includes chassis with integrated controller, host card (PCI Express or Express. Card), and cable 24

PXI Express Video Demo – NIWeek 2006 Keynote Click box to start video demo 25

What Is Multicore Processing? • Multicore processors contain two or more cores, or computing engines, in one physical processor • Multicore processors simultaneously execute two or more computing tasks • Why Multicore? Because of power and performance issues, continuing to rely solely on increases in processor clock rates to improve performance is not feasible 26

Multi-core Programming “One Holy Grail of computer science research has been finding a way to let a compiler take care of parallelization. “ C - Richard Wirt, Intel Senior Fellow Lab. VIEW 27

Multicore vs. Multiprocessor vs. Hyperthreaded Multiprocessor • Multiprocessor systems include two or more physical processors • Multiprocessor systems duplicate computing resources that are often shared in multicore systems (front-side bus, etc. ) • Multiprocessor systems are, most often, higher cost than similar multicore systems (single processor, processor socket, etc. ) Hyperthreaded • A hyperthreaded processor “acts like” two physical processors • Certain resources are duplicated (register set, etc. ), but the execution unit is shared • Hyperthreaded systems include multiple logical 28

Multitasking • Multitasking environments (Windows XP, etc. ) allow multiple applications to run at the same time • With a multicore processor, these multiple applications can simultaneously execute on the processor cores 29

Multithreading • Multithreaded applications separate their tasks into independent threads • A multicore processor can simultaneously execute these threads 30

Demo Multithreaded Application Executing on a Dual-Core Processor

PXI-8105 Lab. VIEW Benchmarks PXI-8105 PXI-8196 100% PXI-8105 PXI-8196 25% 32

The Future of Multicore Processing • Architecture improvements to further reduce power and improve memory bandwidth • Multiprocessor systems with multicore processors • More processor cores • Quad-core processors will release in 2007 33

Microsoft Windows Vista Overview • • • Visualization and Search Security Changes. NET 3. 0 API Vista x 86 versus Vista x 64 Vista Availability Vista System Requirements 34

Graphics and Visualization 35

Vista x 86 versus Vista x 64 Vista x 86 (32 -Bit) Vista x 64 (64 -Bit) Wo. W Emulation Executes in User Mode 32 -Bit Application 64 -Bit Application Executes in Kernel Mode 32 -Bit Service or Driver 64 -Bit Service or Driver NI Software 2007 After 2007 36

Vista System Requirements • Minimum (XP-like experience) – 1 GHz “Modern” Processor – 512 MB RAM – Direct. X 9 Video • Premium (“Aero” experience) – 1 GHz “Modern” Processor – 1 GB RAM – Direct. X 9 Video with 128 MB VRAM 37

Vista-ready Lab. VIEW 8. 2. 1 released on Monday, April 9 th 38