LXI Consortium Releases the LXI Reference Design

NIWOT, CO--(Marketwired - March 18, 2016) - Today, the LXI Consortium proudly announces the release of the LXI Reference Design, Version 1.0 to its members. This "technical blueprint" will help vendors design and implement LXI interfaces into their instrumentation more quickly with lower engineering investment in the long term, in turn leading to more software re-use. It will also ensure the quality and reliability that users of LXI instrumentation have come to expect. We are expecting that the introduction of the LXI Reference Design will result in even more choice in LXI products and more capability that will benefit user applications. Currently, there are more than 2742 certified LXI products from 40 vendors in over 287 different product families.

If you are a manufacturer of instrumentation and are not already a member, consider joining and learn how you can take advantage of the reference design to create an LXI interface more easily. Simply go to the How To Join page on the LXI website and fill out the online form. LXI members have access to the source code needed. The Reference implementation includes the LXI Core plus Extended Functions including HiSLIP, Event Messaging, IPv6 and more. The reference design supports MS Windows^®, Linux and small-scale systems. To view or download an overview of the LXI Reference Design, click here.

The LXI Consortium worked closely with TSE Plazotta (TSEP) to develop the LXI Reference Design and Implementation starting in March 2014. The Consortium conducted regular reviews and offered guidance to TSEP during development. "TSEP is very proud to have finished the LXI Reference Design. The work together with the LXI Consortium was very exciting and innovative. Working with all the different T&M Companies in the LXI Consortium was very inspiring for us. We are looking forward to the next steps and the usage of the LXI Reference Design," said Peter Plazotta, Geschäftsführer Dipl. Ing.(FH), founder of TSEP.

What's coming in 2016 for the LXI Reference Design? With the release of version 1.0 it will be very interesting to see what various T&M companies accomplish with the LXI Reference Design. To help T&M companies, the LXI General Meeting & Plug Fest in Munich, Germany in June will provide an opportunity for intensive support. There will be a lecture on the LXI Reference Design for all interested participants, which is free and open to the public, followed by a closed support session for LXI members only.

"The existence of the Reference Design will provide a framework for the LXI Technical Committee to continue to adapt the Ethernet standards to test and measurement applications. It will enable us to create new functionality that can be tested by implementation on the Reference Design. As the Ethernet and 1588 community within the IEEE continues to evolve the standard in areas such as real time applications we will have a framework to define and test new capabilities and give our vendors a ready means of transporting those features to their LXI designs," said David Owen, Chair, LXI Technical Committee and Co-Chair of the LXI Reference Design Working Group.

To ensure success with vendors' adoption of the LXI Reference Design, the LXI Consortium will implement an ongoing support plan. The support plan will help vendors design LXI interfaces more quickly with lower engineering investment in the long term, in turn leading to more software re-use.

Elements of the support plan include:

• Presentations and videos on how to get the full value from the reference design software.
• An LXI Vendor Forum that will share questions and answers on technical issues regarding the implementation of the reference design.
• Access to the LXI Reference Design Working Group, which oversees, improves, and maintains the reference design.
• Access to TSEP, the company that developed the reference design with the LXI Consortium.
• Defect management and maintenance releases.
• LXI implementation of a virtual instrument model for testing.

"I am proud to be the president of such a successful and innovative standards organization. The LXI Consortium is the first T&M standards body, I believe, to offer a reference design to its members. This will significantly lower ongoing engineering investments for existing members and lower the barrier to entry for new LXI vendors as well. And it will ultimately increase the variety and breadth of LXI products offered to customers. I want to thank the LXI Consortium members involved and TSEP for the exceptional collaboration to reach the official release milestone. I am excited about the efforts we have underway within the LXI Consortium to support our vision of global adoption and utilization of LXI in the decades to come!" said Steve Schink, president of the LXI Consortium.

About LXI Consortium, Inc.

Use the connection you already know!

The LXI Consortium (www.lxistandard.org) is a standard-setting organization in the Test & Measurement industry that develops, maintains and promotes the open LXI Standard. LXI is the robust system backbone for today and tomorrow, and it lets you easily connect the system you need: big or small, local or remote. Thousands of instruments have passed LXI conformance testing, and every one of them lets you use the connection you already know.

With 49 of the top test & measurement (T&M) companies sponsoring and developing this technology, and more than 2,742 products in over 287 different product families, LXI (LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation) is the current and future standard for T&M. LXI has experienced the fastest growth of new products of any T&M standard in the history of the test industry. View LXI Growth Charts.