After determining the measurement needs of your test system, you can begin architecting your hardware framework. Many test engineers jump straight into matching their measurement needs to instruments available on the market. A better approach is to first pinpoint a suitable test platform that can serve as the core or nucleus of your test system. You can choose from many platforms, most of which are based on one of the four most commonly used instrument backplanes/buses –PXI, GPIB, USB, and LAN. Because each of these buses has at least some advantages and limitations (as discussed in chapter 4 of the.
