Differences between the PXI-8430/16 and the Legacy PXI-8420/16
Hardware: Serial>>RS-232>>PXI-8430/16, Serial>>RS-232>>PXI-8420/16
Problem: I am evalutating the two sixteen port NI-Serial boards and have some questions about them. I noticed that the Legacy board is more expensive. Are there any other differences between the two boards?
Solution: Yes, there are several other differences between these two boards. Because of these differences, there is not much reason to purchase these Legacy boards in any new orders.
- Custom Baud Rate
- PXI-8430 can run at all custom baud rates up to 1000000 bps within one percent.
- PXI-8420 can run at standard baud rates up to 115200 bps.
- Maximum Baud Rate
- PXI-8430 1000000 bps
- PXI-8420 115200 bps
- Accessible RS232 Lines
- PXI-8430 All lines are accessible in all ports.
- PXI-8420 In ports nine through sixteen, there is no access to the modem lines (DCD, DSR, DTR, RI)
- Direct Memory Access Capibility
- PXI-8430 Supports DMA transfers, which means the processor is not used as much.
- PXI-8420 Does not support DMA. Under many applications this will increase the processor usage by a factor of two over the new board.
- Connectors and Cabling
- PXI-8430 Connects to two octopus cables, each having eight ports. This solution allows users to plug in one connector if the user is not currently using more than half the ports.
- PXI-8420 A single connector ending in a sixteen port break-out box.
As you can see the new PXI-8430/16 has many advantages over the Lagacy sixteen port interface.
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Attachments:
Report Date: 08/10/2007
Last Updated: 08/20/2007
Document ID: 4C9DSCG2
