NEWS RELEASE – Aug. 8, 2006 – National Instruments, a global leader in virtual instrumentation, today announced LabVIEW 8.20, the 20th anniversary edition of the LabVIEW graphical system design platform for test, control and embedded system design development. NI LabVIEW 8.20 extends the popular LabVIEW graphical programming platform with communications design, simulation and test tools specifically tailored to the needs of telecom design and test engineers. LabVIEW 8.20 gives developers the ability to reuse their m-file scripts created with The MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB® software. For advanced design and test applications, LabVIEW 8.20 also introduces object-oriented programming structures and an XML-based reporting standard for test data management.
Open Communications Design and Test Platform
The LabVIEW 8.20 platform includes the new Modulation Toolkit, a flexible software-defined approach to communications system design and test that builds on the intuitive LabVIEW dataflow programming language. Examples included with the Modulation Toolkit for LabVIEW 8.20 demonstrate orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), a communications technique to increase bandwidth and signal immunity that is being used in the latest IEEE 802.11n Wi-Fi and 4G cellular applications. The Modulation Toolkit for LabVIEW 8.20 makes it possible to develop models to simulate communications systems and evaluate parameter and design decisions, as well as reuse and integrate this code with RF test equipment to perform signal measurements and bit-error rate tests (BERT) for complete product testing.
“New high-bandwidth buses, such as PCI Express, are giving virtual instrumentation and desktop computers the power to process enormous amounts of complex IF and RF data in communications applications,” said Dr. James Truchard, NI president, CEO and cofounder. “With LabVIEW 8.20, engineers can intuitively develop design models and measurement applications through a graphical programming notation that naturally represents the data flow of communications systems.” The introduction of LabVIEW 8.20 includes a significant new innovation called MathScript, a math-oriented textual programming language generally compatible with the m-file scripts created using MATLAB software.
With MathScript, engineers can reuse their existing m-file scripts created using the MATLAB software, or create new scripts with LabVIEW. By doing this, they can mix and match graphical and text-based approaches for generating stimulus signals or performing measurements on complex communications signals.
Powerful New Measurement Targets
LabVIEW 8.20 provides new tools for engineers to define their own custom measurement devices using standard, commercial PC and silicon technologies. The new FPGA Wizard automates the development of FPGA code for building custom, user-defined measurement devices. Engineers can implement FPGA-based measurement devices on plug-in boards in a standard desktop PC for fast, low-cost system prototyping or in a National Instruments PXI module for rugged, high-performance production test systems. For example, the new IF-RIO (intermediate frequency reconfigurable I/O) device incorporates two IF digitizers, two IF generators and an FPGA that is programmed with LabVIEW on a single PCI board. With IF-RIO, engineers can prototype communications systems in LabVIEW and run them with real-time performance all using a standard PC.
Advanced Test Software Development Tools
LabVIEW is consistently rated as a popular software choice for measurement and automation because it gives engineers the ability to get up and running quickly with almost any measurement device, bus or sensor. With LabVIEW 8.20, engineers now use new object-oriented programming structures to more easily design and maintain large, advanced test systems in the LabVIEW graphical programming language.
With the new LabVIEW Instrument Driver Export Wizard for LabVIEW 8.20, engineers can repackage LabVIEW instrument drivers, now numbering more than 5,000, and call them from other programming languages as a dynamic link library (DLL). Instrument vendors now can develop one driver in the popular LabVIEW language, while supporting their customers using legacy text-based programming languages.
LabVIEW 8.20 also introduces a high-speed data storage schema called technical data management (TDM) for documenting and storing test results. With TDM, users can embed rich test data descriptions with their test data files based on an open, XML schema. Engineers following the TDM format can more easily query, search and find specific test results based on dates, operator, results or custom properties for post analysis and reporting.
About National Instruments
For 30 years, National Instruments (www.ni.com) has been a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation – a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists in industry, government and academia approach measurement and automation. Leveraging PCs and commercial technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs for test, control and design applications through easy-to-integrate software, such as NI LabVIEW, and modular measurement and control hardware for PXI, PCI, PCI Express, USB and Ethernet. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 4,000 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. For the past seven years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.
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