Manufacturers of test instrumentation have, to a certain extent, two challenges. One is to create devices capable of meeting the measurement needs and expectations of the design community. The other challenge is to harness the power of emerging technologies to create those instruments.
Although much attention is focused on the components used to create test devices, there is growing interest in the ways in which data can be collected from the device under test and transferred to a host instrument for further analysis.
Another trend – not new, but gaining in popularity rapidly – is virtual instrumentation. The power now available from a desktop pc is such that users can, in many instances, do away with standalone test instruments.
These changes in the test and measurement landscape have prompted National Instruments to propose that the sector is entering a new phase of its existence. Picking up on the phrase 'Web 2.0', which has been used to describe the next generation of the internet, NI is describing this new test landscape as 'Instrumentation 2.0'.
So what does the term 'Instrumentation 2.0' imply. Ian Bell, NI's UK technical marketing manager, said the term was being used to signify what the company is seeing as a 'tipping point' in the instrumentation marketplace. "Instrumentation 1.0 was all about standalone boxes, processors, hardware and software," he claimed. "It meant transferring results over low performance buses, and subsequently people in the Instrumentation 1.0 world were more focused on transferring results, rather than transferring raw data."