Is there a better platform to use for switching in an electronic test system? The answer is no, both the PXI and LXI standards bring different advantages and disadvantages depending on what the user is trying to accomplish. 

For companies that embrace both the PXI and LXI standards for their switching systems, it is a question of what they decide is the appropriate solution for their application. PXI and LXI are sufficiently different - there will often be clear cases where one option is better for a particular solution than another.

LXI instruments are largely platform agnostic whereas PXI instruments are very dependent on the PC architecture (and in many implementations, Windows). LXI devices do not have many mechanical or electrical constraints, but PXI products must conform to the PXI standard to benefit from the multivendor chassis platform. They also can have quite different data speed drivers.

In the illustration below you will see some of these differences:

To see more on the comparison of LXI and PXI switching for automated test systems, take a look at this article from the July issue of Evaluation Engineering.

You can also visit our knowledgebase for additional articles on Switching Platform selection.