Firewire vs. GPIB vs. MXI-2 vs. VXI Embedded PC

Application: Output 100 kHz sine wave from the Agilent E1441A arbitrary function generator, read ac voltage using the Agilent E1412A DMM
Controller: 200 MHz Processor

Results: All configurations tested had comparable performance.

Conclusions from this application:
All I/O configurations provide about the same performance.

Agilent E8491B IEEE 1394 (FireWire) PC to VXI Link

Agilent E8491A IEEE 1394 (FireWire) PC to VXI Link

Agilent E1406A GPIB Command Module

NI VME-PCI8015 MXI-2

Agilent E6235A Embedded VXI PC (200 MHz)

Agilent E1441A output sine wave (ms)

79.71

79.71

79.22

77.63

78.78

Agilent E1412A setup acv measurement (ms)

50.40

50.40

53.81

43.44

41.53

Agilent E1412A "block measure" 8 ac volt readings with min resolution (ms)

8280.06

8280.06

8281.26

8285.63

8283.23

Output data through I/O (ms)

22.34

22.34

25.07

29.40

18.95

Total Time (ms)

8432.51

8432.51

8439.36

8436.10

8422.49

Agilent E1441A output sine wave (ms)

79.71

79.71

79.22

77.63

78.78

Agilent E1412A setup acv measurement (ms)

50.40

50.40

53.81

43.44

41.53

Agilent E1412A "block measure" 8 ac voltage readings with max resolution (ms)

8278.81

8278.81

8279.89

8285.60

8283.7

Output data through I/O (ms)

22.81

22.81

25.06

29.37

18.75

Total Time (ms)

8431.73

8431.73

8437.98

8436.04

8422.76

Agilent E1441A output sine wave (ms)

79.71

79.71

79.22

77.63

78.78

Agilent E1412A setup acv measurement (ms)

50.40

50.40

53.81

43.44

41.53

Agilent E1412A "measure" 1 ac voltage reading with min resolution (ms)

1264.25

1264.25

1265.21

1270.57

1269.46

Output data through I/O (ms)

6.82

6.82

7.43

16.95

6.41

Total Time (ms)

1401.18

1401.18

1405.67

1408.59

1396.18

Agilent E1441A output sine wave (ms)

79.71

79.71

79.22

77.63

78.78

Agilent E1412A setup acv measurement (ms)

50.40

50.40

53.81

43.44

41.53

Agilent E1412A "Voltage Default" (ms)make 1 ac voltage reading and output data through I/O

1564.35

1564.35

1564.88

1565.82

1563.22

Total Time (ms)

1694.46

1694.46

1697.91

1686.89

1683.53