This report covers plug-in analog I/O boards in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region. The study is designed to serve as a marketing tool for companies who currently manufacture or resell data acquisition external chassis and modules and/or plug-in analog I/O boards, or for companies who are considering entering these markets.
A major factor in this forecast is the ongoing trend in data acquisition applications to the use of external devices, especially USB PC front ends instead of plug-in analog I/O boards. These external products are attractive as peripheral add-ons to computers that are portable, and can easily be moved to another platform in a different location.
Plug-In Analog I/O Boards: The worldwide market trend among the plug-in data acquisition analog I/O boards is toward those with greater capability. The desire for smaller form factors, more available bandwidth, and faster bus speeds are driving the market toward newer standards such as PCI Express and PXI Express. This trend is also evident in product lines shifting toward higher channel counts, greater A/D converter resolution and increasing sample data rates. As products are refined and consolidated feature-wise into new standards, the desire to have the newest equipment often follows.
The highest worldwide growth rate forecasts are for the small PC/104 and PXI Express segments. PC/104 is a small form factor (3.6” x 3.8”) board system suitable for highly integrated embedded data acquisition applications. These systems are designed to tolerate shock, vibration, dust, humidity, and operate over an extended temperature range without a fan, depending on the processor speed.
These boards are primarily used in rugged settings. Despite being based on older technology, PC/104 has been expanded from original offering to stay up-to-date. PC/104 has evolved beyond ISA to include PCI and now PCI Express compatibility. Many of these boards also support USB as well, providing additional flexibility.
By integrating the bandwidth capabilities of PCI Express with the PXI standard, PXI Express adds additional features while remaining backward compatible with existing systems. With bandwidth of up to 6 Gbps, PXI Express offers forty-five times as much bandwidth as traditional PXI at 132 Mbps. The greater bandwidth of PXI Express is ideal for high-speed image capture in automobile crash tests or other video-intensive experiments.
The third-highest growth rate is forecast for PCI Express. PCI Express is software compatible with the PCI standard, yet provides significantly faster operating speeds. PCI Express boards have speeds up to 10GHz and are better suited for operating with modern processors. Being software compatible with PCI is an important benefit when upgrading from PCI, as existing software can be used.
Key Technical Parameters:
Input Channels – Demand for data acquisition products under study is shifting to those with more channels. There are growing user requirements to collect and analyze more data with their data acquisition equipment. In addition, the ability of vendors to lower prices per channel is making this equipment more attractive.
A/D Converter Resolution – Demand for data acquisition products under study is shifting to those with higher data converter resolution. Shipment share gains are expected for units all the way up to ones with 32-bit converters. Much of these share gains above 18 bits are expected to be due more to aggressive salesmanship/marketing of vendors and the ability to offer products with higher resolution at attractive prices than real application needs. Some purchasers even admit that if the price premiums are not large, they will buy higher resolution products even though they probably do not need these for their applications.
Application Markets: The estimated five overall largest worldwide application markets in 2007 for the plug-in data acquisition boards are: education, military/aerospace, off-line production testing/QC, on-line discrete manufacturing, and process manufacturing.
Some of the more important factors behind these growth rate expectations are:
- Military/Aerospace – The growing sophistication of military/aerospace hardware being produced in less developed countries, particularly in China, is expected to drive growth;
- Off-Line Production Testing/QC – An increased focus on quality control and product safety is one factor influencing this growth
- On-Line Discrete Manufacturing – Here the products are being used to improve quality and safety and to shorten manufacturing times. In many applications these products provide realtime monitoring to meet new requirements and to make manufacturing adjustments;
- On-Line Process Manufacturing – Newer emission, production, quality control and safety standards/regulations, along with stricter enforcement are making process monitoring more imperative; and
- Scientific – Environmental monitoring and weather forecasting are expected to continue to generate demand, especially by government agencies and universities.
Geographic Markets: For external chassis and modules, the slowest market growth rates are expected in the Americas, with by far the fastest for the Asia-Pacific region. A major consideration in the Americas forecast is the expected slow growth rate of the U.S. economy. The most significant reason for the high growth rate forecasts for the Asia-Pacific region is the rapidly increasing manufacturing operations in countries there with emerging economies, particularly China.
Manufacturing businesses in these countries are being formed and expanded. In addition, manufacturers in other regions are moving operations to countries in this region with low labor costs. Part of the increases in capital investment by these firms will be in data acquisition products, both for use in manufacturing operations and in the design and testing of new products. In addition, these countries have growing needs for environmental monitoring, and in medical applications.
Product Focus:
Plug-in Analog I/O Boards:
- CAMAC
- CompactPCI
- ISA
- PC/104
- PCI
- PCI Express
- PCMCIA
- PXI
- PXI Express
- VME
- VXI
Current and Future User Needs and Preferences
- Functional use of data acquisition products
- Stationary versus portable applications
- Product selection criteria
- Communication network usage for external chassis and modules
- Microprocessor usage
- Operating system usage
- Programming language usage
- Bundling of software versus third party sources
- Input channel usage by types of sensors
- Non-vendor selection criteria
- User data sources on products and vendors
Geographic Regions
- Americas: Central, North and South
- EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)
- Asia-Pacific
Consuming Applications
- Education
- Industrial Maintenance
- Laboratory/R&D
- Military/Aerospace
- Off-Line Production Testing/QC
- On-Line Discrete Manufacturing
- On-Line Process Manufacturing
- Scientific
Consuming Industries
- Appliances
- Automotive
- Communications
- Construction
- Consumer Electronics
- Electric Power
- Electrical Products
- Environmental Monitoring
- Food & Beverage
- HVAC
- Medical/Health
- Military/Aerospace
- Petrochemical
- Pharmaceutical
- Primary Metals
- Pulp & Paper
- Oil/Gas
- Semiconductor
- Testing Labs
- Textile
- Universities
- Water/Wastewater
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