National Instruments extends LabView

National Instruments and QNX Software Systems have teamed up to extend the LabView graphical dataflow environment to the QNX Neutrino real-time operating system (RTOS).

National Instruments and QNX Software Systems have teamed up to extend the LabView graphical dataflow environment to the QNX Neutrino real-time operating system (RTOS).

Engineers can now use the NI LabView Embedded Development Module with the QNX Neutrino RTOS to add comprehensive support for multicore processors and target any supported hardware platform for QNX Neutrino.

Moore's Law states that processing speeds will double every 18 months, but because of current physical limitations, this is no longer possible.

To achieve the required computing performance, silicon vendors have been moving to multicore processor designs.

Engineers using LabView to design, prototype and deploy their embedded designs with QNX Neutrino can now develop programs known as VIs in LabView with multiple simultaneous execution paths and instantly see increased processing power with no special coding or configuration required.

LabView engineers do not have to worry about additional thread management and multitasking coding because QNX Neutrino handles this automatically.

"Multicore technology is becoming ubiquitous, and it is important for embedded system designers to stay ahead of the curve," said Randy Martin, Product Manager for QNX Software Systems.

"Together the QNX Neutrino operating system and LabView Embedded deliver a powerful and simple solution for building multicore designs using the familiar graphical environment of LabView and the high-level performance of QNX Neutrino".

Additionally, engineers using the LabView Embedded Development Module with the QNX Neutrino RTOS are not required to choose a target CPU until much later in the project design.

Instead, the engineer can complete the design and prototype stages using commercial off-the-shelf hardware such as National Instruments CompactRIO or PXI without addressing the final target configuration.

After measuring the required CPU performance, the engineer can choose a single core or multicore target based on the specific application needs.

Recently, QNX Software Systems announced that the QNX Neutrino RTOS now works with the National Instruments Measurement Hardware Driver Development Kit and PCI multifunction data acquisition (DAQ) boards.

This announcement means design engineers can now choose from a wide range of National Instruments DAQ products - from low-cost single-function units to high-speed multifunction devices - while experiencing the benefits of the proven fault tolerance and real-time performance of QNX Neutrino.

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