The development pc will be in more of a 'lab' environment - a dell has been ordered.
The spinoff esp vi's with hardware may be in many places - it will be a piece of test equipment in its own right, may be portable, could be taken on site to an installation for example, test house etc. PC's for this will depend on the application.
Tests will also be carried out on a production line and yes I agree with the PXI, in fact our subby will be using / supplying that system for a particular project.