A design and implementation of and triggering system for LXI instruments

In this paper, a software–hardware mixed design of synchronization and triggering system for multi-functional LXI instruments is proposed. A solution based on open-source software PTPd and DP83640 is introduced and the synchronous deviation can be limited to ±20 ns. And the trigger state machine is implemented in a FPGA while trigger service requests and trigger resources are processed or managed by Linux application programs. Equipped with IVI-COM programming interface and Lua scripting platform, the design can be used to build an efficient and interchangeable test system. In addition, an event log mechanism is also provided to assist fault analysis. Test results indicate that the design strictly conforms to the IviLxiSync Specification, and the precision of synchronization and triggering system satisfies the recommendations of LXI Device Specification.