AXIe™ Specifications Now Available

By Larry Desjardin, AXIe Consortium/Agilent Technologies

On June 30, 2010, the AXIe Consortium Board of Directors approved two specifications that are the cornerstone of the emerging AdvancedTCA® Extensions for Instrumentation standard. The two specifications are:

• AXIe 1.0 Base Architecture Specification, Revision 1.0
• AXIe 3.1 Semiconductor Test Specification, Revision 1.0

Both specifications, as well as an overview, may be downloaded from the AXIe Consortium website at www.axiestandard.org.

AXIe 1.0 specifies a base architecture for general purpose instrumentation. Applications include design validation of electronic products, electronic functional testing, and high speed data acquisition. The specification leverages AdvancedTCA, but adds an additional Zone 1+2 topology that maintains compatibility with current AdvancedTCA processors while simultaneously adding high performance triggering, synchronization, and local bus.  AXIe leverages PICMG 3.4 PCIe specification for the data fabric, and also offers a high speed local bus capable of delivering slot to slot transfer rates in excess of 600Gb/s. 

Since they keep all instrumentation extensions in the Zone 2 area and avoid Zone 3 access, AXIe 1.0 backplanes can accept AdvancedTCA boards that utilize Zone 3 RTMs without conflict.  This strategy also allows for future specifications in Zone 3 for specific vertical markets and applications. These specifications will be numbered AXIe 3.N.

The first such specification is AXIe 3.1. It specifies a Zone 3 extension focused on semiconductor test. It delivers enhanced timing and triggering capability required by that marketplace, as well as routing of device under test pins through the Zone 3 connector to an RTM that leads to a test head. Being a Zone 3 specification, AXIe 3.1 may be deployed with a standard AdvancedTCA Zone 1+2 topology, or with the AXIe 1.0 topology mentioned above. In the latter case, AXIe 1.0 instruments work with full capability in an AXIe 3.1 system.

The AXIe Consortium now has eight members, with representation from the instrumentation and industrial computer industries. First products are predicted before the end of 2010. They are expected to include backplanes, chassis, system modules, embedded computers, instrument modules, and complete systems. The close relationship between AdvancedTCA and AXIe lowers the barrier to entry for vendors who already offer AdvancedTCA products. A complete list of members and instructions on how to join the AXIe Consortium are available on the AXIe Consortium website. 

Larry Desjardin is Chairman of the AXIe Consortium Board of Directors and also General Manager, Modular Product Operation (MPO) at Agilent Technologies. You can reach him at larry_desjardin@agilent.com.