PXI is an architecture that provides instrument manufacturers a better way to amortize their development costs. This is because they can design a product for the PCI market and, with minimal additional circuitry, release it in a PXI form/factor. This allows them to address two markets with essentially the same design. The advantage to Teradyne is that PCI instrument vendors are developing PXI products at a phenomenal rate - over 250 products in 2001 alone. It is becoming easier for us to address our customer's needs in the automotive, wireless, telecom, and optical markets. If we find an instrument in the PCI form factor, and we have an opportunity in a particular market, the instrument vendor can move their PCI design to PXI quickly and at minimal cost. We have found that the PXI architecture helps us to address test issues in markets that are extremely cost sensitive. The automotive market, for example, needs comprehensive functional test for mission-critical modules such as anti-lock brakes and airbag controllers. But the low profit margin nature of this industry dictates that a low cost solution be acquired. VXI and GPIB instrumentation cannot address this market in a cost effective manner. Another advantage for Teradyne has been PXI's compatibility with the CompactPCI architecture. For example, there are a significant number of telecom data acquisition modules in the 6U form/factor that we can leverage to support our customer base. With our 6U platform, we're able take full advantage of all the 6U and 3U module offerings as well as maximize functionality per module. This is required in order to adequately address complex test requirements of automotive and communication manufacturers.
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