NIWeek: First RF vector signal transceiver unveiled

National Instruments has unveiled at NIWeek in Austin, its first RF vector signal transceiver on the PXI virtual instrumentation bus.
The PXIe-5644R RF vector signal transceiver is a software-designed instrument which combines a vector signal generator and vector signal analyser with a user-programmable FPGA into a single PXI modular instrument.
As a result engineers can use the LabView design system to optimise the FPGA-based hardware for specific mobile and other wireless applications.
“When we first started our company, we envisioned the central role software would play in instrumentation, and now we are truly seeing LabVIEW revolutionize the way engineers approach RF design and test,”  said Dr. James Truchard, president, CEO and cofounder of National Instruments.
The instrument covers up to 6.0GHz and has an 80MHz instantaneous RF bandwidth. This makes the transciever suitable for wireless standards such as 802.11ac and LTE.
It can be expanded to support multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) configurations or parallel testing in a single PXI chassis.