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December 2007 NEWSLETTER Geotest-MTS would like to wish you and your family a holiday season filled with joy and peace, and a happy and prosperous new year.   This issue of the Geotest newsletter includes industry news, new product updates, application tips, military news, and information about upcoming events where you can find Geotest. If you have comments about this newsletter or would like to share your application or success stories, please contact Geotest at editor@geotestinc.com.

Taking PXI to the next level A recent Test & Measurement World Q&A outlines the philosophy behind the company’s PXI introductions

In addition to one of our latest offerings - the GX1034, a new PXI standards module - Geotest has released a number of PXI-based solutions over the last several months. Mike Dewey, senior marketing manager at Geotest, was asked by T&MW contributing editor Richard Quinnell what has been the impetus behind this recent expansion in its PXI product line. Click here to read article

AUTOTESTCON is in the books Geotest President Loofie Gutterman discusses this year's ATC show In September, Mil-Aero ATE aficionados made their annual pilgrimage to AutoTestCon (ATC), which took place this year in Baltimore, Maryland. In the past, ATC was a showcase for PXI and this year's was no different, or maybe it was. With PXI celebrating its 10th anniversary, the PXI Systems Alliance (PXISA) chose ATC to kick off its anniversary year activities. Click here to read full article

An off-the-shelf test software platform for integrating multiple technologies Appearing in OpenSystem's Winter edition of PXI Test & Technology, the article was written by Geotest's Mike Dewey and Ron Yazma ATE systems are rarely all one flavor – they typically have a range of hardware and software technologies, and new technologies continue to be added all the time. Click here to read full article PXI & Geotest on the road Geotest worked in conjunction with eight other PXI vendors to help create two of three multi-vendor PXISA demos for the Autotestcon and Productronica shows in Baltimore, MD and Munich, Germany. Using Geotest’s GX7100A combo chassis, a GX5283 digital instrument and ATEasy as well as other instrumentation, a mixed signal test semiconductor test system was developed which highlighted the interoperability, compact footprint, and performance of the PXI platform for both digital and analog test applications. The demonstration employed a two-channel, 12-bit, 125 MS/a digital to analog device as a device under test (DUT) and included a complement of AC parametric tests such as differential non-linearity, integral non-linearity, channel skew, rise and fall times, total harmonic distortion, signal to noise, and spurious free dynamic range. The resulting test program demonstrated how users can successfully integrate high performance, mixed-signal test systems using off the shelf instruments and software technologies available from PXI vendors. The demo featured PXI products from GaGe, Geotest, Keithley, MAC Panel, Pickering and ZTEC. Geotest also contributed a GX7100A combo chassis and controller for a high channel count, data acquisition system. This demo featured 864 channels of data acquisition in a single PXI/cPCI chassis with hardware and software from multiple vendors including GaGe, KineticSystems, Geotest, Keithley Instruments, ADLINK, and National Instruments. Measurements acquired from the jet-engine simulation included temperature, pressure, flow, RPM, and ARINC-429. Both 3U and 6U PXI/cPCI modules were used in the system and functionalities include digital I/O, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, signal conditioning, digitizers, frequency counters, and multifunction data acquisition. More information about these demos is available at the following sites: Test & Measurement World Marketwire   Geotest adds new affiliates to its list of worldwide channel partners Amplicon in the UK, Dana Technology in Korea, MB Electronique in Italy, Interfax Systems in Canada, Maser Technology Group in Australia and New Zealand, and PXI Direct in Germany will be representing Geotest’s complete line of products, including PXI and PC based instrumentation, ATEasy software, and GPIB instruments.  ATEasy APPLICATION TIPS [TOP]   Creating a Dynamic Form Using ATEasy   ATEasy supports creating dynamic forms. Usually the form’s contents, controls and menus, are created at design time using the ATEasy form editor. Dynamic forms are forms with content   created at run time. While it is possible to create the form with all of the required controls that you expect to use at design time, and then use the control Visible property to show or hide control and the Move method to position them; you may want to create the controls at run-time based on the form’s logic.   Click here to see the full knowledge base article.

GX1034 Precision Standards Module With the GX1034, a single-slot 3U PXI module, system designers can develop a system re-certification strategy that employs only internal system resources. As part of a system configuration, GX1034 makes it possible to develop a system accuracy verification strategy that can recertify a system’s source and measure baseband instrumentation – resulting in simplified support / maintenance logistics and improved system availability. The GX1034 includes precision AC & DC reference sources, reference resistors, and a precision 10 MHz source. Click here to read a related ATC paper written by Geotest's David Manor & Mike Dewey  GX2472 Digitizer Offers Unique Set of Features Offering differential inputs and low distortion, the GX2472 digitizer is the ideal instrument for analyzing high performance or low level analog signals. The module's features include:     • Two channel, 14 bit, 70 MS/s digitizer   • Differential or single ended inputs   • DC to >50 MHz analog bandwidth   GX1110 Arbitrary Waveform Function Generator Like two instruments in one, the GX1110 is designed with a DDS-based function generator and an arbitrary waveform generator. The GX1110 features 2 M samples of memory, supports a 100 MHz sample rate, and is capable of generating low distortion sine waves up to 30 MHz. The GX1110 comes standard with Geotest's WaveEasy software, which allows users to graphically or programmatically construct waveforms that can then be loaded into the GX1110’s memory for playback. Together, the GX1110 and WaveEasy offer a very capable and useful set of tools for creating and generating arbitrary and periodic waveforms for a variety of applications.  GX5055 6U High Performance Digital I/O Offering new levels of performance and capabilities previously only available in VXI, the GX5055 offers unmatched capability and flexibility for testing today’s complex digital products including LRU and SRU assemblies. The GX5055 offers the highest I/O voltage range of any PXI digital instrument in the industry (-10V to +15V with a full 25V swing), per pin programmable drive, sense, and load capabilities, deskew per pin, and supports a 50 MHz vector rate. The GX5055 is designed to address a broad range of Mil/Aero digital test applications for both factory and depot level needs. Two New Chassis Offer 'Wireless' Interfacing The GX7002A-MP and GX7302-MP have joined Geotest's family of 3U and 6U chassis. The two new chassis incorporate the MAC Panel SCOUT receivers, which offer a reliable and high performance method to connect test system resources to a mass interconnect receiver, minimizing the need for cable assemblies. The MAC Panel solution offers a superior method to interface test system resources to the ITA, and helps to eliminate the need for cumbersome wiring harnesses and their inherent reliability issues. The GX73x2-MP incorporates a 20-slot 3U PXI chassis that can accommodate up to 19 instruments as well as an embedded PXI controller or a PXI bus expander interface such as the GX7990 or MXI-4. The GX70x2A-MP incorporates a 20-slot 6U PXI chassis that can accommodate up to 19 instruments as well as a PXI controller or a PXI bus expander interface. See all chassis solutions GX7920 & GX7930 Series 3U/6U PXI Controllers The new Core Duo and Core 2 Duo PXI controllers offer increased performance over previous generation processors with no increase in power consumption. Once installed in a Geotest 3U or 6U chassis, the GX7922, GX7924, GX7932, and GX7934 provide an integrated, high performance, single slot, PXI controller solution – supporting all integrated chassis peripherals (hard drive, DVD, etc.) and providing a variety of I/O interfaces including USB, Gigabit Ethernet, and RS232. The GX7922 and GX7924 offer added flexibility by providing a front panel accessible PMC slot, which can accommodate a variety of interfaces and functions for specific applications or needs.

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Geotest exhibits at LOA conference Representatives from Geotest joined military logisticians and senior level executives from top defense manufacturing companies at the 2007 LOA conference in Washington, DC last month. At the conference, Geotest staff took the opportunity to discuss Geotest products and solutions with senior leaders from the Pentagon and the Defense Logistics Agency. Among the products Geotest presented at the conference was the MTS-206 ruggedized field tester, which is used for a variety of mil-aero testing applications. The next LOA conference will be held next year in Columbus, Ohio.

April 2008
Avionics Maintenance Conference
Hosted by American Airlines this year, the AMC is attended by more than 750 avionics maintenance experts from around the world. This annual conference identifies technical solutions to avionics maintenance issues resulting in immediate and long-term maintenance improvements and cost savings. The conference will take place in Tulsa, OK on April 14 - 17, 2008. As a member of the AAI, Geotest will be exhibiting at the reception event on Tuesday, April 15th.

For more information about this event, visit the event page www.aviation-ia.com/amc.

Also, please visit the Geotest website for a listing of future show dates.

Web-based ATEasy demo
Have you wanted to see a hands-on demo of ATEasy in action? Now you can via a web-based demo. Geotest has put together a presentation which is presented by one of our ATEasy applications engineers. The presentation and demo requires about one hour and will provide you with an overview of the features and capabilities of ATEasy including its test executive, development environment, and how you can use text or graphical programming test languages with ATEasy. Contact our sales department at sales@geotestinc.com or your local sales representative to schedule a demo.

Learn more about what ATEasy is here.