Editors from Test and Measurement World magazine named the National Instruments PXI-5922 flexible-resolution digitiser as a best in test winner and finalist for the test product of the year
"Each year, a Test and Measurement World editorial panel presents the best in test awards to 12 products we think are particularly innovative or useful," said Rick Nelson, chief editor of Test and Measurement World.
"We selected the NI PXI-5922 flexible-resolution digitiser as a 2006 best in test product because of its user-defined resolution and proprietary linearisation technique, which combine to make the digitiser a flexible general-purpose instrument for dynamic measurements".
Unlike traditional oscilloscopes and PC-based digitisers that have a fixed resolution for all sample rates, the NI PXI-5922 is a flexible-resolution digitiser with which engineers can trade sample rate for resolution through software.
For example, at 15MS/s, the module delivers 16 bits of resolution; by reducing the sample rate to 500kS/s or less through a software call, the same module (without any hardware changes) delivers 24 bits of resolution.
The NI PXI-5922 digitiser is said to be the industrys highest dynamic range digitiser with noise density as low as -170dBFS/Hz.
With the increased dynamic range, engineers can analyse a signal that was previously lost in the noise floor of their instrumentation.
This unprecedented dynamic range and flexible resolution are possible with the development of the Flex II analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) technology, which uses an enhanced multibit delta-sigma converter and patented techniques for digital linearisation.
"NI invests heavily in innovation with a strong R and D investment, resulting in high-quality, high-performance products that revolutionise the way engineers and scientists work," said Tim Dehne, NI senior vice president of R and D.
"With the NI PXI-5922 flexible-resolution digitiser, engineers can now use a single digitiser to make a wide range of measurements spanning many different applications with the best performance and resolution available.
"Engineers can combine the digitiser with National Instruments LabVIEW software to create virtual instruments that often exceed the measurement performance of traditional instruments with similar functionality".
Nominations for the best in test competition were submitted by manufacturers and users of products introduced between 1 November 2004 and 31 October 2005.
The magazine publishes its list of best in test finalists in December and asks readers to vote for the test product of the year.
Representatives from Test and Measurement World announce the results at the Apex tradeshow on 9 February 2006 in Anaheim, California.
NI offers essential technologies for test, which combine high-performance hardware, flexible software and innovative timing and synchronisation technology for test and design applications.
NI modular instruments offer accurate, high-throughput measurements from DC to 2.7GHz.
The product family includes digitisers/PC-based oscilloscopes (up to 24 bits, up to 250MS/s); signal generators (up to 16bits, 200MS/s); digital waveform generator/analysers (up to 400Mb/s); digital multimeters (up to 7.5 digits); RF vector signal generators and analysers (up to 2.7GHz); dynamic signal analysers (up to 24 bits, 500kS/s); and switching (multiplexers, matrices and general purpose) .
