LabVIEW version looks to next-gen multi-core
22 September 2008
The latest version of National Instruments’ (www.ni.com/labview86) graphical system design software allows engineers to use FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) and multi-core processors which have been described as the biggest challenge to designers today, as unlike parallel devices, even Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs says “no-one knows how to program them”.
Multi-core is used in supercomputering and maps automatically to three or more CPUs without processing functions. The optimized analysis for the multi-core environment adds 1,200 optimised functions to increase the speed of dynamic simulation, by virtual of multi-core processing, by up to a factor of five.
LabVIEW 8.6, introduced at NI Week in Austin, Texas introduces multi-core processing and FPGA technology to engineers in industrial automation as well as wireless device test.
The software is optimized for multi-core analysis functions and FPGA features to reduce compilation times and to quickly integrate existing IP cores, claims the company.
One of the main application areas to use multi-core processors is wireless. LabVIEW 8.6 and the NI PXI platform replace sequential, text-based software tools for parallel processing with commercial multi-core processors to deliver software-defined test architecture to accelerate RF device test.
The inherent multi-threading in the software is claimed to simplify parallel programming, and this latest version has more than 1,200 new, optimized analysis functions that perform faster math and signal processing on multi-core systems, according to the company.
Two 6.6GHz PXI RF instruments have also been introduced, a vector signal analyzer and vector signal generator to build faster RF test systems. A GPS Toolkit for LabVIEW introduces multi-satellite GPS signal simulation to the company’s RF PXI offering.
The Modulation Toolkit 4.1 provides an extra 100 multi-core-optimised analysis functions, including fractional resampling and QAM demodulation measurements that perform up to 200 per cent faster than the previous version of the toolkit. Test results for individual WCDMA measurements can be more than x20 faster than traditional instruments.
There is also enhanced multi-core support for LabVIEW 8.6 across RF test toolkits for WiMAX, GPS, WCDMA, GSM, EDGE, broadcast video, 802.11, Bluetooth, OFDM and MIMO with little to no change to existing software applications.
The PXI RF instruments can layout diagrams neater for inherited designs, making it easier to work at elements of code and to progress to tidying wires as is possible with previous versions of LabVIEW.
The version of LabVIEW also introduces the FPGA Module 8.6, which is described as an intuitive dataflow paradigm for programming FPGAs. It introduces automated test systems to embed custom algorithms into NI FPGA-based instruments for inline processing or part-system emulation.
The module accelerates the development of emulation-based, or protocol-aware, ATE, with new signal processing IP cores. A Component-Level IP (CLIP) node allows engineers to import existing or third-party IP into the FPGA module. New simulation features validate an application on the desktop development machine to reduce the number of compilations necessary. The module also adds expanded support for fixed-point data for developing more complex math algorithms on the FPGA-enabled instrument.
The software version is also claimed to simplify programming of the NI Compact RIO control and acquisition systems. A scan engine integrates timing into the programming language with a scanning I/O architecture, condensing complex measurement and control application development. The scan architecture offers out-of-the-box I/O determinism better than 500nsec, claims the company.
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