AXIe Technical Update

By Steve Narciso, AXIe Consortium

The AXIe technical committee is actively working on the 1.0 and 1.1 specifications. AXIe 1.0 is the base specification that adds basic instrumentation requirements to the AdvancedTCA framework. The AXIe 1.0 working group is focusing on maximizing AdvancedTCA compatibility, yet including the features required for high-performance instrumentation. AXIe 1.1 is an additional layer that specifies Zone 3 interfaces providing required features for automated semiconductor test systems. The AXIe 1.0 and AXIe 1.1 working groups expect to complete first-draft specifications shortly.

Many observers ask how AXIe 1.0, using only Zone 2 resources, can deliver advanced triggering and synchronization while still maintaining compatibility with most current AdvancedTCA modules. It achieves this by limiting an AXIe 1.0 chassis to 14 slots, the most that can be supported in a 19 inch EIA cabinet. These cabinets are the defacto standard for instrumentation systems. With slots 15 and 16 eliminated, many pins are freed on each slot, which are repurposed to instrumentation functions. AXIe 1.0 adds three specific bus structures: parallel LVDS synchronization lines that go to each slot, 100MHz Clock, Sync, and “Star Trigger” that deliver point to point precision triggering from a hub to each module, and a high speed segmented “local bus” that connects adjacent slots. This local bus consists of 8 differential pairs. They can be defined to provide private communication between adjacent modules, or among a set of modules. Due to the short path lengths (only to the next slot), very high speed data transfers can be achieved. E-keying identifies AXIe modules and the resources they are using. Through this method, and clever choice of pins and bus structures, AXIe delivers powerful timing and synchronization features while maximizing backwards compatibility with existing AdvancedTCA products.           

Steve Narciso is Technical Committee Co-Chair, AXIe Consortium, and also a Program Manager at Agilent Technologies. You can reach him at steve_narciso@agilent.com.