National Instruments PXIe-8861 User Manual
USER MANUAL
PXIe-8861
This document provides reference information for PXI Express and the PXIe-8861 embedded
controller.
Contents
Related Documentation ............................................................................................................1
PXI Express Features................................................................................................................ 2
Benefits of PXI Express....................................................................................................2
PXIe-8861................................................................................................................................. 3
Description........................................................................................................................ 3
Functional Overview.........................................................................................................3
National Instruments Software..................................................................................................5
Configuration............................................................................................................................ 6
BIOS Setup Utility............................................................................................................ 6
System CMOS.................................................................................................................14
Boot Options................................................................................................................... 15
Hard Drive Recovery...................................................................................................... 16
Upgrade Information.......................................................................................................16
Installing an OS...............................................................................................................17
I/O Information....................................................................................................................... 17
DisplayPort......................................................................................................................17
RS-232 Serial Port.......................................................................................................... 18
Ethernet........................................................................................................................... 18
Universal Serial Bus........................................................................................................19
Trigger.............................................................................................................................20
Worldwide Support and Services............................................................................................ 21
Related Documentation
The following documents contain information you may find helpful as you read this manual:
• PICMG EXP.0 R2.0 CompactPCI Express Specification, PCI Industrial Computers
Manufacturers Group
• IEEE Standard P1284.1-1997 (C/MM) Standard for Information Technology for
Transport Independent Printer/System Interface
• PCI Express Base Specification, PCI Special Interest Group
• PXI-5 PXI Express Hardware Specification, PXI Systems Alliance
• PXI-6 PXI Express Software Specification, PXI Systems Alliance
• Serialized IRQ Support for PCI Systems Specification, Compaq Computer et al.
PXI Express Features
Benefits of PXI Express
The PXI (PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation) industry standard, an open specification
governed by the PXI Systems Alliance (PXISA), has quickly gained adoption and grown in
prevalence in test, measurement, and control systems since its release in 1998. One of the key
elements driving the rapid adoption of PXI is its use of PCI in the communication backplane.
As the commercial PC industry has improved the available bus bandwidth by evolving PCI to
PCI Express, PXI is now able to meet even more application needs by integrating PCI Express
into the PXI standard. By taking advantage of PCI Express technology in the backplane, PXI
Express increases the available PXI bandwidth from up to 132 MB/s to up to 8 GB/s for a
more than 60x improvement in bandwidth.
PXI Express maximizes both hardware and software compatibility with PXI modules. PXI
Express hybrid slots deliver both PCI and PCI Express signaling to accept devices that use
PXI communication and triggering or the newer PXI Express standard. Software compatibility
is maintained because PCI Express uses the same OS and driver model as PCI, resulting in
complete software compatibility among PCI-based systems, for example PXI, and PCI
Express-based systems such as PXI Express.
PXI Express, like PXI, leverages from the CompactPCI specification to define a rugged,
modular form factor that offers superior mechanical integrity and easy installation and removal
of hardware components. PXI Express products offer higher and more carefully defined levels
of environmental performance required by the shock, vibration, temperature, and humidity
extremes of industrial environments. Mandatory environmental testing and active cooling is
added to the CompactPCI mechanical specification to ease system integration and ensure
multivendor interoperability.
The demanding timing and synchronization requirements of instrumentation systems are met
by the integrated features of PXI Express. Not only are the trigger bus, 10 MHz system
reference clock, and star trigger bus available in PXI retained by PXI Express, but new timing
and synchronization features that include a 100 MHz differential system reference clock for
the synchronization of multiple modules and three differential star trigger buses for the
distribution of precise clock and trigger signals have been added. Differential timing and
synchronization signals provide PXI Express systems with increased noise immunity and the
ability to transmit clock signals at higher frequencies.
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PXIe-8861
Description
The PXIe-8861 PXI Express/CompactPCI Express embedded controller is a high-performance
PXI Express/CompactPCI Express-compatible system controller. The PXIe-8861 controller
integrates standard I/O features in a single unit by using state-of-the-art packaging. Combining
a PXIe-8861 embedded controller with a PXI Express-compatible chassis, such as the
PXIe-1095, results in a fully PC-compatible computer in a compact, rugged package.
The PXIe-8861 has an Intel® Xeon® E3-1515M v5 processor (Quad Core, 2.8 GHz base, 3.7
GHz turbo frequency), all the standard I/O, and a 512 GB or larger solid state drive.
The standard I/O on each module includes two DisplayPort video, one RS-232 serial port, four
Hi-Speed USB ports, two SuperSpeed USB ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports (one enabled for
1588), two Thunderbolt 3 ports, a reset button, and an SMB connector for triggers.
Functional Overview
The PXIe-8861 is a modular PC in a PXI Express 3U-size form factor. The following figure is
a functional block diagram of the PXIe-8861. Following the diagram is a description of each
logic block shown.
PXIe-8861 User Manual | © National Instruments | 3
Figure 1. PXIe-8861 Block Diagram
Intel
C230 Series
Chipset
CPU
Intel Xeon
E3-1515M v5
SO-DIMM
DDR4-2133
DisplayPort 1.1
x2
USB 2.0
M.2 SSD
FLASH BIOS
Watchdog
Trigger
SMB
Connector
TPM
x16
PXI
Triggers
x4
Intel I219
Gigabit
PHY
RJ45
Port 0
PCI Express
PCI Express
Switch
PXI
Express
4x4
or 2x8
USB 3.0
x2
GPU
AMD Radeon
E6465
Thunderbolt 3
x2
DSL 6540
Intel I210
Gigabit
PHY
RJ45
Port 1
GPIB
Controller
GPIB
Connector
PCI Expressto-PCI Bridge
DisplayPort 1.2
RS232
UART
The PXIe-8861 consists of the following logic blocks on one circuit card assembly (CCA):
• The processor is an Intel® Xeon® E3-1515M v5 processor (Quad Core, 2.8 GHz base,
3.7 GHz turbo frequency).
• The SO-DIMM block consists of two DDR4 PC-2133 SO-DIMM sockets that can hold up
to 32 GB of memory.
• The processor provides the PCI Express interface to the PXI Express backplane through a
PCI Express switch.
• The Platform Controller Hub (PCH) provides the USB, PCI Express x1, and LPC
interfaces that connect to the peripherals on the PXIe-8861.
• The DisplayPort 1.1 block consists of a 1.1 compatible DisplayPort connector nearest the
USB 3.0 ports.
• The DisplayPort 1.2 block consists of a 1.2 compatible DisplayPort connector nearest the
Thunderbolt 3 connectors.
• The USB block consists of two Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectors and two SuperSpeed USB
3.0 connectors.
• The Ethernet Port 0 block consists of an Intel® I219 Gigabit Ethernet Connection.
• The Ethernet Port 1 block consists of an Intel® I210 Gigabit Ethernet Connection.
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• The UART block connects to one serial port.
• The SMB Front Panel Trigger provides a routable connection of the PXI triggers to/from
the SMB on the front panel.
• The Watchdog block consists of a watchdog timer that can reset the controller or generate
triggers.
• The PXI Express Connectors connect the PXIe-8861 to the PXI Express/CompactPCI
Express backplane.
National Instruments Software
National Instruments has developed several software tools you can use with the PXIe-8861.
National Instruments hardware and software work together to help you make the most of your
PXI system. The LabVIEW, Measurement Studio, and LabWindows™/CVI™ application
development environments combine with leading hardware drivers such as NI-DAQmx to
provide exceptional control of NI hardware. Instrument drivers are available at ni.com/
idnet to simplify communication with instruments over a variety of buses.
LabVIEW is a powerful and easy-to-use graphical programming environment you can use to
acquire data from thousands of different instruments including USB, IEEE 488.2, VXI, serial,
PLCs, and plug-in boards. LabVIEW helps you convert acquired data into meaningful results
using powerful data analysis routines. Add-on tools provide additional specialized
functionality. For more information, visit ni.com/labview and ni.com/toolkits.
If you prefer to use Microsoft’s Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual Studio .NET for the core
of your application, Measurement Studio adds tools for Measurement and Automation to each
language. For more information, visit ni.com/mstudio.
LabWindows/CVI is an interactive ANSI C programming environment designed for building
virtual instrument applications. LabWindows/CVI delivers a drag-and-drop editor for building
user interfaces, a complete ANSI C environment for building your test program logic, and a
collection of automated code generation tools, as well as utilities for building automated test
systems, monitoring applications, or laboratory experiments. For more information, visit
ni.com/lwcvi.
NI-DAQmx provides an extensive library of functions that you can call from your application
development environment or interactive environment such as NI Signal Express. These
functions provide an intuitive API for National Instruments multifunction DAQ products.
Features available include analog input (A/D conversion), buffered data acquisition (highspeed A/D conversion), analog output (D/A conversion), waveform generation, digital I/O,
counter/timer operations, SCXI signal conditioning, RTSI or PXI synchronization, selfcalibration, messaging, and acquiring data to extended memory. For more information, visit
ni.com/daq.
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National Instruments modular instruments use specialized drivers suited to each product’s
specialization. Express VIs provide customized, interactive programming of instruments in a
single interface, and soft front panels provide an interface for testing the functionality of each
instrument with no programming required. NI Switches, DMMs, High-Speed DIO, HighSpeed Digitizers, and Sources each have customized drivers for high-end modular
instrumentation systems. RF applications leverage two drivers, NI-RFSG and NI-RFSA, and
Dynamic Signal Acquisition is available through NI-DAQmx. For more information, visit
ni.com/modularinstruments.
You can expand the timing and triggering functionality of your PXI system with PXI Timing
and Synchronization products. These products provide precision clock sources, custom routing
of triggers for multi-chassis synchronization, clock sharing, and more and are programmed
with NI-Sync. For more information, visit ni.com/pxi.
NI-VISA is the National Instruments implementation of the VISA specification. VISA is a
uniform API for communicating and controlling USB, Serial, GPIB, PXI, VXI, and various
other types of instruments. This API aids in the creation of portable applications and
instrument drivers. For information about writing your own PXI instrument driver with
NI-VISA, refer to the NI-VISA Getting Started Manual and the readme.txt file in the
NI-VISA directory. For more information, visit ni.com/visa.
With LabVIEW for Linux and support for more than two hundred devices on Linux with the
NI-DAQmx driver, you can now create virtual instruments based on the Linux OS. Instrument
control in Linux has been improved by the NI-VISA driver for Linux, and NI modular
instruments are partially supported. For more information, visit ni.com/linux.
Configuration
BIOS Setup Utility
You can change the PXIe-8861 configuration settings in the BIOS setup program. The BIOS is
the low-level interface between the hardware and operating system software that configures
and tests your hardware when you boot the system. The BIOS setup program includes menus
for configuring settings and enabling PXIe-8861 controller features.
Most users do not need to use the BIOS setup program, as the PXIe-8861 controller ships with
default settings that work well for most configurations.
Caution Changing BIOS settings may lead to incorrect controller behavior and
possibly an unbootable controller. If this happens, follow the instructions for
restoring default settings in the System CMOS section. In general, do not change a
setting unless you are absolutely certain what it does.
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Accessing BIOS Setup Utility
1. Power on or restart your PXIe-8861 controller.
2. When the message Press <DEL> to enter setup appears, press the <Delete> key.
The setup program loads after a short delay.
The Main menu is displayed when you first enter the BIOS setup program.
Use the following keys to navigate through the BIOS setup program:
• Left Arrow, Right Arrow—Use these keys to move between the different setup menus.
If you are in a submenu, these keys have no effect, and you must press <Esc> to leave the
submenu first. (To use the arrows on the numeric keypad, you must turn off Num Lock.)
• Up Arrow, Down Arrow—Use these keys to move between the options within a setup
menu. (To use the arrows on the numeric keypad, you must turn off Num Lock.)
• <Enter>—Use this key either to enter a submenu or display all available settings for a
highlighted configuration option.
• <Esc>—Use this key to return to the parent menu of a submenu. At the top-level menus,
this key serves as a shortcut to the Exit menu.
• <+> and <–>—Use these keys to cycle between all available settings for a selected
configuration option.
• <Tab>—Use this key to select time and date fields.
• <F9>—Use this key to load the optimal default values for BIOS configuration settings.
The optimal default values are the same as the shipping configuration default values.
Main Setup Menu
The most commonly accessed and modified BIOS settings are in the Main setup menu. The
Main setup menu reports the following configuration information:
• BIOS Version and Build Date—These values indicate the version of the PXIe-8861
controller BIOS and the date on which the BIOS was built.
• Embedded Firmware Version—This value helps identify the built-in hardware
capabilities.
• Processor Type, Base/Max Processor Frequency, and Active Processor Cores—These
values indicate the type of processor used in the PXIe-8861 controller, the processor
speed, and the maximum number of processor cores.
• Microcode Revision—This is the microcode revision of your PXIe-8861 processor.
• Total Memory and Frequency—This value indicates the system RAM size and
frequency the BIOS detects.
• PXIe Chassis Information—These values indicate the overall chassis link configuration,
the link width of each link, and the link speed of each link.
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