NI cRIO-9052 High-Speed PCI Interface for CompactRIO FAQ

The National Instruments cRIO-9052 provides a high-speed PCI interface to any NI cRIO-910x reconfigurable chassis from a laptop, PXI system or PC. With the NI cRIO-9052, engineers can interface with the FPGA inside of CompactRIO chassis at rates up to 50 MB/s. The result is a reconfigurable solution ideal for applications requiring the flexibility of the FPGA within CompactRIO and high bandwidth for high-channel-count applications. The cRIO-9052 is designed for extreme ruggedness, reliability, and low power consumption with dual 9 to 35 VDC supply inputs that deliver isolated power to the CompactRIO chassis/modules and a -40 to 70 ºC temperature range.

What is included in the cRIO-9052 high-speed interface kits?

The cRIO-9052 kits include a cRIO-9052 StarFabric interface controller, one NI 8310 root device (CardBus-8310, PXI-8310, or PCI-8310), and two 3 m cables. The cRIO-9052 kits can be used with any cRIO-910x reconfigurable chassis. The cRIO-9052 and NI 8310 devices use a StarFabric interface to implement a PCI-to-PCI bridge, providing a transparent link where the CompactRIO reconfigurable chassis appears to users as if were a plug-in device within the host computer itself.

NI cRIO-9052 Cardbus Kit	NI cRIO-9052PXI Kit	NI cRIO-9052PCI Kit

What CompactRIO chassis can I use with the cRIO-9052?

You can use any of the cRIO-910x reconfigurable CompactRIO chassis and any of the C Series modules with the cRIO-9052 high-speed PCI interface controller system. There are 4 and 8-slot CompactRIO chassis with 1M and 3M gate FPGA chips. C Series modules are available for thermocouple, DSA, voltage, current, industrial digital input/output measurements and more.

NOTE: The NI cRIO-9151 CompactRIO R Series expansion chassis is not compatible with the cRIO-9052.

What laptops are compatible with the cRIO-9052Cardbus kit?

For a list of laptop computers that are compatible with the cRIO-9052Cardbus kit, visit the CardBus-8310 compatible laptop computers document.

Is the cRIO-9052 a LabVIEW Real-Time Target?

No. The cRIO-9052 does not have a real-time processor that can run LabVIEW real-time. The cRIO-9052 acts as a PCI extension bridge from your PC (laptop, PXI system, or PC) to the cRIO-910x reconfigurable FPGA chassis. If you need a stand-alone, real-time operation with the rugged form-factor of CompactRIO, use a cRIO-900x real-time controller along with a cRIO-910x chassis. You can use LabVIEW real-time running on the PXI system or PC to interface with the cRIO-9052 high-speed PCI interface controller if you need real-time along with the FPGA of the cRIO-910x chassis.

NOTE: Once you have started an application handled by the cRIO-9052 and the cRIO-910x CompactRIO chassis, you can disconnect your laptop, PXI system or PC from CompactRIO while the application continues to run and connect up to the cRIO-9052 at a later time. This functionality eliminates the need to dedicate the PC or PXI system to only the CompactRIO application.

How do I program the CompactRIO system when using the cRIO-9052?

The cRIO-9052 and NI 8310 devices (Cardbus-8310, PXI-8310, or PCI-8310) use a StarFabric interface to implement a PCI-to-PCI bridge, providing a transparent link where the cRIO-910x reconfigurable chassis appears to users as if were a PCI board within the host computer itself. Once the system is installed, you can program the system with the LabVIEW FPGA module to customize the timing, triggering, synchronization, and digital signal processing of the FPGA.

Users can use built-in functions within LabVIEW and/or LabVIEW Real-Time for interfacing directly with the FPGA in the CompactRIO chassis. This provides PXI and PC users with the ability to build a deterministic, real-time application to communicate with the LabVIEW code running on the FPGA of CompactRIO.

What applications is the cRIO-9052 suited for?

The cRIO-9052 high-speed PCI interface system is ideal for applications that require the high-bandwidth data path between FPGA I/O and the processor of your PC. You can customize the timing, triggering, and synchronization and add high-speed digital signal processing (sensor decoding, digital filtering, and more) within the FPGA of CompactRIO and transfer data to cabled PC to perform additional processing and high-speed logging.

• High-Count-Applications
  o Noise, Vibration, Harshness (NVH) testing
  o High-speed data logging
  o Online signal processing
  o High-speed, custom counter/timers
  o Custom communications protocols
• Advanced simulation applications
  o Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation
  o Sensor/actuator simulation

With performance of the cRIO-9052 high-speed PCI interface, you can place the rugged, CompactRIO system close to the I/O of your application while your laptop, PC or PXI system remains up to 14 m (approximately 46 ft) from your CompactRIO system. This makes the cRIO-9052 high-speed PCI interface system for CompactRIO an ideal solution for harsh environments (the cRIO-9052 is rated with -40 to 70 ºC temperature range and 50 g of shock) that are too severe for PCs. The cRIO-9052 has a dual power supply that operates from 9-35 VDC on power-up and from 6-35 VDC during operation with very low power consumption (7-10 W typical). This power feature of the cRIO-9052 makes it ideal for automotive applications where the cRIO-9052 high-speed PCI interface system can operate off of a car battery.

What are the performance benchmarks for the cRIO-9052?

The cRIO-9052 can transfer up to 50 MB/s* of data from the FPGA of a cRIO-9052 to the processor of your laptop, PC or PXI system. Therefore, you could fill an eight-slot CompactRIO chassis with NI 9233 dynamic signal acquisition modules (4-ch, 24-bit, 50 kS/s/ch) and acquire from all 32 channels at the maximum rate of 50 kS/s with no problem. Acquiring from all 32 channels of 24-bit channels at 50 kS/s/ch is equivalent to 4.8 MB/s which is well under the 50 MB/s bandwidth of the cRIO-9052 high-speed interface system.

*This rate varies depending on your host system specifications, such as processor speed, RAM, and so on.
Related Links:
CompactRIO Homepage
Laptops compatible with cRIO-9052 Cardbus kit

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