Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: National Instruments | Subject: LabView 8.5
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 08 August 2007
Graphical programming turns to multicore
design
The latest version of LabView extends the embedded platform to program multicore real-time processors.
Just released by National Instruments, LabView 8.5 extends the embedded platform to program multicore real-time processors LabView 8.5 combines the familiar graphical programming environment of LabView software with commercial multicore hardware to achieve significant performance gains
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 22 Aug 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Additionally, LabView 8.5 introduces the LabView Statechart Module for higher-level designs to run on targets including FPGAs, real-time systems, PDAs, touch panels and a variety of microprocessors.
Design engineers have historically relied on tools that are not optimised for the parallel programming required to take full advantage of multicore systems.
With the inherent parallel nature of LabView graphical code, embedded developers can enhance applications ranging from design validation systems such as hardware-in-the-loop simulators to complex control systems such as high-speed particle accelerators.
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To achieve real-time symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), NI developed a real-time load balancing scheduler to automatically assign tasks to different processor cores, providing performance improvements without sacrificing determinism or requiring user code changes.
With LabView 8.5, users can also manually assign portions of code to specific processor cores to fine-tune real-time systems or isolate time-critical tasks on a dedicated core.
This new support for embedded multicore systems builds on more than 10 years of investment in multithreading technology with LabView graphical programming.
"Programming embedded multicore systems is very difficult with conventional tools", says Dr James Truchard, National Instruments President, CEO and co-founder.
"The ability to program real-time multicore hardware with LabView 8.5 represents a technology breakthrough for embedded developers".
"The new multicore support and the programming model delivered by the statechart module in LabView 8.5 will meet embedded design needs for years to come".
The LabView Statechart Module is a new addon for LabView 8.5 that gives engineers an alternative to designing systems with a high-level diagram based on the Unified Modelling Language (UML) standard.
Statecharts are commonly used to design state machines that model the behaviour of real-time and embedded systems to depict event occurrences and responses for designing digital communication protocols, machine controllers and system-protection applications.
Embedded developers can use the Statechart Module to design software combined with real-world I/O running on deterministic real-time or FPGA-based hardware with familiar, high-level statechart notations.
Engineers and scientists can get their designs to market faster with the combination of high-level design tools, including statecharts and simulation diagrams, with low-level multicore support that a single platform empowers.
To meet the more challenging debugging and code optimisation requirements of real-time multicore development, engineers and scientists can use the new NI Real-Time Execution Trace Toolkit 2.0 to visually display timing relationships between sections of their code and the individual threads and processing cores where the code is executing.
LabView 8.5 continues to simplify the task of programming FPGAs with an enhanced FPGA Project Wizard that automates I/O configuration, IP development and overall setup for common I/O counter, timer and encoder applications.
Using the FPGA Project Wizard and its automatic code generation, engineers and scientists can easily add DMA for high-speed data transfer.
To further the LabView Embedded product offering, NI has added a simplified I/O programming interface to the NI LabView Embedded Module for ADI Blackfin Processors 2.0, making analogue and digital I/O significantly easier.
Also, the LabView Microprocessor SDK (Software Development Kit) 2.5 now includes Freescale ColdFire in its list of compatible platforms.
Additional LabView 8.5 features include: new FPGA IP including multichannel PID, notch filter and signal generators; an OEM evaluation bundle with QNX Neutrino RTOS and NI USB data acquisition hardware; project file management tools and graphical code merging for team-based development; low-level memory management tools for performance optimisation; new optimised BLAS linear algebra libraries; improved edge detection for image processing and optimised algorithms for various demodulators and channel coding schemes; and control design and simulation enhancements including model predictive control (MPC) and analytical PID controller design.
To be one of the first to see and test drive LabView 8.5, register on the NI website for the NI LabView 8.5 Roadshow, touring seven locations across the UK and Ireland during September. Request a free brochure from National Instruments ...
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