9-4 | ni.com
Chapter 9 Digital Routing and Clock Generation
Real-Time System Integration (RTSI)
Real-Time System Integration (RTSI) is a set of bused signals among devices that allows you to
do the following:
• Use a common clock (or timebase) to drive the timing engine on multiple devices
• Share trigger signals between devices
Many National Instruments DAQ, Motion, Vision, and CAN devices support RTSI.
Note RTSI is not supported on USB devices.
In a PCI/PCI Express system, the RTSI bus consists of the RTSI bus interface and a ribbon cable.
The bus can route timing and trigger signals between several functions on as many as five DAQ,
vision, motion, or CAN devices in the computer.
In a PXI/PXI Express system, the RTSI bus consists of the RTSI bus interface and the PXI trigger
signals on the PXI backplane. This bus can route timing and trigger signals between several
functions on as many as seven DAQ devices in the system.
RTSI Connector Pinout
(PCI/PCI Express Devices) Figure 9-2 shows the RTSI connector pinout and Table 9-1
describes the RTSI signals.
Figure 9-2. M Series PCI/PCI Express Device RTSI Pinout
Terminal 2
Terminal 34
Terminal 33
Terminal 1