National Instruments (NI) has introduced the latest version (8.6) of its LabVIEW graphical system design software platform for control, test and embedded system development. Building on the inherent parallel nature of graphical programming, it delivers new tools to help engineers and scientists take advantage of multi-core processors, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and wireless communication.
To take advantage of these technologies, engineers are currently forced to work with multiple tools that were not designed for parallel programming. By using the latest version of LabVIEW, engineers now have a single platform to increase test and control system throughput with multi-core processors, reduce the development time of high-performance FPGA-based advanced control and embedded prototyping applications and more easily create distributed measurement systems to acquire data remotely.
From robotics to designing hybrid vehicles, users must have the ability to quickly incorporate the latest technologies. NI believes that LabVIEW now offers the shortest path to apply these technologies using parallel programming while providing users the freedom to apply the software in ways that meet their specific needs.
The opportunity for breakthrough performance in test and measurement systems increases, as standard systems gain more processing cores. Expanding on the built-in multithreading technology of the LabVIEW platform, the new version offers supercomputing performance through multi-core-optimised features, which can help engineers process increasing amounts of measurement data.
LabVIEW 8.6 includes more than 1,200 newly optimised, advanced analysis functions that offer faster, enhanced math and signal processing on multi-core systems for control and test applications. Vision applications can also benefit from multi-core systems by using innovative image processing functions included in the NI Vision Development Module for LabVIEW 8.6.