ADLINK PXI-3920/3910 Controller Installation and Configuration Guide

ADLINK PXI-3920/3910 System Controller Installation and Configuration Guide

In the field of automated testing and measurement, the PXI platform has become an ideal choice for building hybrid testing systems due to its modularity, high bandwidth, and durability. The PXI-3920 and PXI-3910 3U PXI system controllers launched by ADLINK are respectively equipped with Intel Pentium M 760 2.0 GHz and Celeron M 373 1.0 GHz processors, coupled with the 915GME chipset, providing powerful computing cores for PXI systems. These two controllers adopt a cable free mechanical structure, with the CPU and memory directly soldered to the PCB, significantly improving their anti vibration capabilities, and equipped with GPIB, dual gigabit Ethernet USB、 Configurable serial ports and other rich interfaces make it convenient to connect various traditional instruments and LXI devices. This article is based on the official technical manual, which systematically outlines the complete usage chain of the controller from hardware architecture, interface definition, jumper configuration, installation process, driver deployment to trigger/watchdog programming, helping engineers quickly complete system setup and maintenance.

Hardware architecture and core features

1. Processor and Memory

PXI-3920：Intel Pentium M 760， Main frequency 2.0 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz front-end bus.

PXI-3910：Intel Celeron M 373， Main frequency 1.0 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 400 MHz front-end bus.

Both use Intel 915GME chipset (including graphics memory control center and ICH6-M southbridge), supporting dual channel DDR2 SDRAM (400/533 MHz) with a maximum total capacity of 1.5 GB. 512 MB of memory has been soldered onto the board, and a DDR2 SO-DIMM slot is provided for expansion. All CPU and memory chips are soldered onto the PCB, and are evenly cooled with aluminum copper composite heat sinks to ensure long-term stable operation in impact and vibration environments.

2. Storage interface

SATA Gen.1: Pre installed 2.5-inch 80 GB SATA hard drive (5400 RPM), supports hot swapping, and can also be replaced with a solid-state drive (SSD) to improve vibration resistance.

CompactFlash Type II slot (located on the first layer of the motherboard, below the hard drive): Supports ATA and PIO mode CF cards, can be used as a system disk to replace mechanical hard drives, and is suitable for high vibration environments.

3. Panel I/O interface

Display: DVI-I connector, supporting both digital (DVI) and analog (VGA) outputs, adapted through the included DVI-VGA adapter. Integrated Intel GMA 900 graphics accelerator, DVI supports up to 1600 × 1200, VGA supports up to 2048 × 1536.

Dual Gigabit Ethernet: Based on the Marvel 88E8053 controller (PCIe x1 interface), two RJ-45 ports support 10/100/1000M adaptive, with speed and link/activity LED indicators.

USB 2.0: Four Type-A interfaces, supporting high-speed/full speed/low-speed devices, can be used for external keyboards, mice, USB drives, external optical drives, etc.

GPIB: Onboard IEEE488 controller, using Micro D-Sub 25P connector (requires dedicated cable ACL-IEEE488-MD1), with a maximum transmission rate of 1.5 MB/s, can control up to 14 instruments, and provides driver API compatible with NI-488.2.

Serial port: Two DB-9 interfaces (COM1 and COM2), compatible with 16C550, supporting RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, and mode selection through onboard jumpers.

High fidelity audio: Realtek ALC260 chip, supports 24 bit, 192 kHz high-quality linear input and headphone/speaker output, with Line in and Speaker out ports provided on the panel.

PXI trigger I/O: an SMB coaxial connector used for routing external trigger signals to the PXI backplane trigger bus, supporting software and hardware triggers.

Reset button: Pinhole type hard reset button, used to force restart.

LED indicator lights: power (green), hard drive activity (yellow), watchdog timeout (red), system health (blue, flashing indicates fault).

4. Onboard connector (internal)

CompactFlash slot: located below the CPU module, specific pin definitions can be found in Figure 2-12 of the manual.

SATA port: Standard 7+15 pin combination interface, used to connect 2.5-inch SATA devices.

PXI J1 and J2 connectors: compliant with PXI specification version 2.2, providing 32-bit PCI bus, trigger bus, power supply, etc. J1 is the standard PCI signal, J2 includes trigger lines (PXI_TRIG0~7), system enable, etc.

Detailed explanation of jumper settings

The controller is equipped with multiple jumpers for configuring COM mode, clearing CMOS, etc.

1. CMOS Clear (JP9)

When the system cannot start due to BIOS settings errors, you can short-circuit pins 2-3 of JP9 (Figure 2-17) to clear the CMOS and restore the default settings. After completion, the jumper must be restored to pins 1-2 (normal mode).

2. COM1/COM2 mode selection (JP1~JP6)

Two serial ports can be set to RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485 through jumper wires. Each group of ports uses 6 jumpers (JP1~JP6), with the specific combination as follows (taking COM1 as an example, COM2 is the same):

Mode JP1 JP2 JP3 JP4 JP5 JP6

RS-232 (default) 5-6 3-5, 4-6 3-5, 4-6 (unused) --

RS-422 3-4 1-3,2-4 1-3,2-4 3-5,4-6 - -