InstrumentationNewsletter

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6 Eight Cost-Free Techniques to Improve Test Throughput

8 Embedded Industry Trend – Sensors Get Smart

10 New RIO IF Transceiver Module Brings FPGAs to RF Applications

11 Address Three Top Software Engineering Challenges with LabVIEW Tools

12 Customize Your Chip Characterization with NI FlexRIO and LabVIEW FPGA

14 Lunacy Challenge Incorporates CompactRIO at FIRST Championship

15 Did You Know LabVIEW Could Convert Your PC or SBC into a Real-Time System?

16 Special Focus: Virtual Instrumentation Helps Engineers Upgrade Infrastructure

24 How to Integrate Your Tools into the LabVIEW Environment

26 The Future of Instrument Control – The Software Is Still the Instrument

27 NI Labs Includes Pioneer Release of C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA

The Worldwide Publication for Measurement and Automation l Second Quarter 2009

Think Beyond the Box A Software-Defined Approach to RF Test page 3

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CategoryInside NI

InstrumentationNewsletter

Instrumentation Newsletter is published quarterly by National Instruments Corporation, 11500 N Mopac Expwy, Austin, TX 78759-3504 USA.

What do Hewlett-Packard, FedEx, and CNN have in common? Believe it or not, each of these companies was founded during difficult economic times. What about product innovations like nylon and the Apple iPod? They were also developed and released in weak economies. It turns out that these examples are not anomalies – adversity can help spur innovation. It is clear that innovation is the lifeblood of high-tech companies. But I am not simply referring to the lightning bolt ideas that only happen in a research lab. I am talking about the ideas that all of us – test engineers, design engineers, and researchers alike – apply to improving the processes and products that we work on every day. But how do you innovate in a time when resources are scarce and the business world has collectively become risk-averse? The answer is what I call “lean innovation.”

Do More with Less In the past, you may have had a fully staffed design team with a digital engineer, analog engineer, mechanical engineer, and software developer. Now, it may be only you. To prototype a design or build a test system, you need to apply your domain expertise across multiple engineering disciplines. Therefore, I expect to see more engineers designing at a system level, using a technique called graphical system design. This approach abstracts the implementation details that have typically required more specialized skills.

Prove It It is going to be hard to get an idea financed in these conditions without first proving its impact. With graphical system design software, you can quickly develop a prototype of the system to show initial

results and lower perceived risk. Whether it is a test system or a new product concept, ideas accompanied by a prototype are more likely to receive funding.

Use the Network It turns out that breakthrough innovation does not come out of the blue. According to Andrew Hargadon, author of How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate, innovation often creates value from the network it brings together. For instance, Hargadon argues that the success of the iPod is not only due to its slick design, but rather how Apple assembled a network of hardware, software, and content in a way that its competitors still have not matched. When resources are tight, there is another reason to reach out to the network: with fewer resources, you need to find elements to reuse. While the temptation might be to act conservatively in 2009, I encourage you to embrace lean innovation. To do so, however, you will have to do more with less, prototype your idea quickly, and maximize reuse through the network.

An extended version of this article first appeared in the March 26, 2009, edition of Electronic Design.

Innovating through Tough Times

– Eric Starkloff eric.starkloff@ni.com Eric Starkloff has been with National Instruments since 1997 and is the vice president of product marketing for test. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia.

Inside NI

Executive Editor John GraffEditor in Chief Jennifer DawkinsManaging Editor Andria Balman Senior Editor Jenn Giles Associate Editors Jennifer King, Jontel MoranContributing Editors Johanna Gilmore, Tiffany Wilder

Creative Manager Joe SilvaArt Director Adam HampshireProject Manager Pamela MapuaDesigner Gerald CodinaIllustrator Brent BurdenPrint Production Art Manager Laura Thompson

Production Artists Pam Nalty, Fatos ShitaPhoto Editors Nicole Kinbarovsky, Allie VerlanderImage Coordinator Kathy BrownProduction Specialists Judy Pinckard, Robert BurnetteCirculation Coordinator Molly Rand

Volume 21, Number 2 Second Quarter 2009

©2009 National Instruments. All rights reserved. ActiveMath, AutoCode, BioBench, BridgeVIEW, Citadel, CompactRIO, Crashbase, CVI, DAQCard, DAQ Designer, DAQPad, DAQ-STC, DASYLab, DIAdem, DIAdem CLIP, DIAdem-INSIGHT, DocumentIt!, Electronics Workbench, FieldPoint, Flex ADC, FlexDMM, FlexFrame, FlexMotion, HiQ, HS488, IMAQ, Instrumentation Newsletter, Instrupedia, LabVIEW, LabVIEW Player, Lookout, MANTIS, MATRIXx, Measure, Measurement Ready, Measurement Studio, MITE, Multisim, MXI, NAT4882, NAT7210, NAT9914, National Instruments, National Instruments Alliance Partner, NI, NI-488, ni.com, NI CompactDAQ, NI Developer Suite, NI FlexRIO, NI-Motion, NI Motion Assistant, NI SoftMotion, NI TestStand, NIWeek, RIDE, RTSI, SCXI, Sensors Plug&Play, SignalExpress, SystemBuild, The Software is the Instrument, The Virtual Instrumentation Company, TNT4882, TNT4882C, Turbo488, Ultiboard, VAB, VirtualBench, VXIpc, and Xmath are trademarks of National Instruments. The mark LabWindows is used under a license from Microsoft Corporation. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. LEGO, the LEGO logo, MINDSTORMS, and WEDO are trademarks of the LEGO Group. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

A National Instruments Alliance Partner is a business entity independent from National Instruments and has no agency, partnership, or joint-venture relationship with National Instruments.

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Category

For automated test systems with multiple test requirements, this approach usually results in a different box for each measurement requirement in the system. When the test requirements are uniform and nonchanging, this method may be sufficient, but it becomes cumbersome, slow, and ultimately more expensive for testing today’s complex RF devices, which often use multiple wireless standards. A software-defined approach is ideal for automating RF verification, validation, and production tests, while traditional RF box instruments continue to play an important role on the design bench.

Inside the InstrumentToday’s engineers must think beyond the box for their RF test needs. However, to think beyond the box, they first have to know what is inside a typical RF box instrument. Inside each approximately 38,000 cubic centimeters of sheet metal and plastic enclosure is a vendor-defined world of components that constitute an RF box instrument; typically there is a power supply, processor, PC motherboard or backplane, embedded operating system, measurement libraries, and a software display. The traditional appeal of a box instrument is the combination of these matched components applied to a specific set of measurement requirements.

This approach worked when testing RF devices with common test requirements. In recent years, however, the efficiency of a box instrument for automated RF testing has significantly diminished amidst the constant changes in features in wireless devices. The production volume of wireless devices is also exceeding the typical test throughput of traditional RF box instruments due to the slower processors and data buses that are often generations older than current PC technology. A clear understanding of the traditional RF instrument makeup and the challenges of working with fixed-measurement functionality and suboptimal I/O processing is helping engineers think beyond the box for their automated RF measurement needs.

Software-Defined Approach The transition to software-defined instrumentation for all types of automated measurement systems, including RF, is growing rapidly with an expected deployment of 100,000 PXI-based systems by the end of 2009, including more than 600,000 software-defined instrument modules. The open, user-defined software and modular PC-based hardware are ideal for automated RF test applications because they provide the highest-performance processors and data buses, flexible peripheral I/O, compact modular design, smart power distribution and monitoring, and precise timing and synchronization throughout the system.

The traditional engineering response to testing a new wireless standard often involves selecting a box instrument with the closest specifications.

PXI ExpressVector Signal Analyzerwith Intel Core 2 Duo

PXI ExpressVector Signal Analyzerwith AMD Turion 64 X2

SpecializedWLAN Box

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Think Beyond the Box – A Software-Defined Approach to RF Test

Figure 1. Compare EVM measurement times of competitive instruments. (continued on page 4)

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4 Q2 2009

In other words, the software-defined approach to automated RF test uses similar types of components as a traditional RF box instrument but applies them in a modular, user-defined architecture. This provides engineers with the highest-performance components, user-programmable I/O and analysis, and a compact form factor with proven reliability in the most demanding RF test environments. The end reward for engineers thinking beyond the box is an RF test solution that is faster, more flexible, and equally accurate – all at a fraction of the cost of stacking traditional RF boxes within a system. To further understand the benefits of software-defined instrumentation for RF, take a look at the following examples that describe how the speed, flexibility, and accuracy of this approach yields significant improvements in meeting today’s RF test needs.

Measurement Speed – WLANOne of the core benefits of software-defined PXI measurement systems is significantly faster measurement times than traditional RF instruments. While this advantage is compounded when testing multiple wireless standards, engineers can also achieve significant speedup when testing a single standard such as wireless local area network (WLAN). WLAN measurements such as error vector magnitude (EVM) and spectrum mask require a large amount of signal processing. Using multicore CPUs in PXI controllers, engineers can perform these measurements five to 10 times faster with software-defined RF instrumentation such as the NI PXIe-5663 6.6 GHz RF vector signal analyzer. Moreover, engineers using the NI WLAN toolkits for LabVIEW can automatically upgrade their measurement performance every time a faster PXI multicore controller is released because the test libraries are designed for execution across multiple cores. In Figure 1, observe a comparison between the WLAN measurement times for an EVM and power measurement of a 54 Mbps burst on various RF signal analyzers.

High-performance multicore processors used in PXI WLAN measurement systems based on NI LabVIEW software perform most IEEE 802.11a/b/g measurements five to 10 times faster than traditional vector signal analyzers and specialized WLAN box instruments.

Flexible Instrumentation – Broadcast RadioA second benefit of software-defined instrumentation is the flexibility to test multiple wireless standards with the same RF hardware.

Today’s wireless devices are required to meet an increasing number of standards. For example, the modern smart phone often supports a minimum of six wireless standards such as GSM/EDGE/WCDMA, Bluetooth, GPS, and even WLAN. In addition, some modern broadcast radio receivers support 10 or more wireless standards including AM/FM, RDS/RDBS, Sirius, XM, DAB, IBOC, GPS, TMC over RDS, and even DARC. Thus, there is a clear need in wireless test for instrumentation flexible enough to handle new wireless standards as they emerge. With software-defined instrumentation, engineers can create any broadcast radio signal within LabVIEW and download it into the memory of a PXI RF vector signal generator for immediate broadcast testing. For example, engineers from Averna, a Select National Instruments Alliance Partner, offer the PXI-based universal radio tester (URT) to test

multiple radio standards using the same RF instrumentation. A typical Averna URT system is shown in Figure 2. In addition to generating radio broadcast standards, the Averna URT performs RF record and playback. This technology takes advantage of the high data rates of the PXI data buses and high-performance data storage and processing of LabVIEW software. By recording RF signals and playing them back in the lab, engineers can validate how receivers, such as an FM, DVB-T, or GPS receiver, operate in their final deployment environments.

Figure 2. A single Averna URT can broadcast generation and RF record and playback of multiple broadcast radio standards.

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Accurate Instrumentation – WiMAXA final benefit of software-defined RF instrumentation is that engineers can achieve highly accurate measurements at a lower cost than traditional instruments. With the emergence of new wireless standards such as WiMAX and 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), many wireless devices must meet stricter RF performance requirements than ever before. For example, the minimum EVM requirement for an 802.11a/g (WLAN) transmitter is -25 dB for the 54 Mbps, 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal type. Newer standards such as 3GPP LTE and WiMAX are subject to even higher RF performance requirements. By contrast, the minimum EVM requirement for an 802.16-2004 (Fixed WiMAX) device is -31 dB for a similar 64-QAM signal type, requiring better RF performance. Today’s software-defined instrumentation helps engineers achieve world-class RF measurement performance at a lower cost than was previously possible. Three years ago, an RF vector signal generator and analyzer that achieved EVM measurements of -45 dB for Fixed WiMAX and adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) measurements of 65 dBc for WCDMA would have cost more than $100,000 USD from any vendor. Today, however, engineers can obtain this level of accuracy for less than $65,000 USD (chassis and controller included)

using new PXI instruments such as the NI PXIe-5663 6.6 GHz RF vector signal analyzer and NI PXIe-5673 RF vector signal generator. Both instruments use the latest 16-bit analog-to-digital and digital-to- analog converters and a low-phase noise synthesizer (-110 dBc/Hz at 1 GHz) over wide instantaneous bandwidths (50 MHz and 100 MHz, respectively) to achieve accurate measurements at a low price. As an example, consider the residual EVM performance of the NI PXIe-5663 and PXIe-5673 for a Fixed WiMAX signal at 3.5 GHz. Using the new NI Measurement Suite for Fixed WiMAX, engineers can visualize a constellation plot of a 16-QAM signal. This plot provides a visual representation of the modulation accuracy, with smaller dot sizes indicating better RF performance. The EVM reported in Figure 3 is -46 dB (0.5 percent), a result that is 15 dB more than the minimum

performance requirements of Fixed WiMAX devices. With the increasing requirements for measurement speed, flexibility, and accuracy, engineers must continue to think beyond the box for innovative RF test solutions. Fortunately, modular, software-defined instrumentation offers engineers new tools to test the growing number of wireless standards.

– Richard McDonell richard.mcdonell@ni.com Richard McDonell is a senior group manager for PXI and VXI at National Instruments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University.

– David Hall david.hall@ni.com David Hall is a product manager for RF and wireless communications hardware and software at National Instruments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Penn State University.

To read a white paper on benchmarking your PXI RF test system, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9201.

Figure 3. A WiMAX constellation plot of a 16-QAM EVM measurement rivals significantly more expensive RF instrumentation from other test vendors.

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6 Q2 2009

Category

Most tips and techniques to improve test throughput focus on new products and equipment that require you to make initial capital investments to achieve your desired results. However, this article summarizes eight cost-free software optimization techniques tested, implemented, and provided by test developers. While some tips specify the software used, all are generic enough to span any automated test system software.

Quick Tips before Getting StartedBefore making any software changes, begin by benchmarking your system to pinpoint potential obstacles and time-intensive tests. Benchmarking helps identify areas to improve test throughput. Also, at some point, test developers need to make trade-offs between execution speed and modularity. Understand your top-level objectives before you get started so you can make the right decisions when faced with a trade-off. To minimize anxiety due to the potential size and complexity of test software applications, scope your efforts by looking at your application from an architectural perspective. Figure 1 shows a simplified view of a common software architecture – test management, application development, and driver-level software – used as a foundation in this article.

Test Management Software1. Maximize Hardware Efficiency – You can reduce test time and

increase throughput by profiling instrument usage and uptime. Resource profiling helps identify the critical test system path, which

requires the most time and instrument resources to execute. After profiling the system, determine the percentage of the total test time and instrument usage consumed by individual tests. With this information, you can make informed decisions such as adding instruments or considering parallel test techniques with shared instruments. NI TestStand test management software includes a Resource Usage Profiler to address this need.1 The Resource Usage Profiler displays the use of instruments and other resources in real time, as shown in Figure 2. If you do not use NI TestStand, you can timestamp the execution of your test code and then perform the necessary calculations.

2. Decrease UUT Test Time with Parallelism – Even when testing a single unit under test (UUT), you may be able to test multiple portions of the unit in parallel to reduce test time. First, to test a single UUT in parallel, you need to identify independent UUT components and profile your instrument usage. Then you can develop subsequences within your test management software to test the independent components. To truly operate in parallel, each test sequence must run in a new thread or execution.2

Application Development Software 3. Maximize Code Module Run Time – Identify ways to add parallel

processing in your test code. For instance, separate higher-priority

Feature

Eight Cost-Free Techniques to Improve Test Throughput

Driver-Level Software

Application Development Software

Test Management Software

Figure 1. Three layers to focus on for test software optimization include test management, application development, and driver-level software.

Figure 2. Profiling test system resources increases throughput by helping you understand instrument usage and potential obstacles.

Rather than focus on new test platforms that can lower the cost of test, you can improve test system performance without investing more capital into your equipment.

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tasks such as test logic and I/O from lower-priority tasks such as logging and user interface updates. Use parallel design techniques including pipelining, task parallelism, and data parallelism to maximize performance, as shown in Figure 3.3 Multicore processors significantly improve parallel test performance. If you use NI LabVIEW as your application development environment (ADE), LabVIEW automatically identifies parallelism in the code and distributes execution across multiple cores without changes to the code.

4. Improve Execution Speed with Optimized Compilers – Many ADEs provide multiple options for compilation. For instance, using optimized compilers from Intel, Microsoft, and Borland regardless of the development tool, you can create speed- and size-optimized release executables and DLLs. NI LabWindows™/CVI software offers this compiler flexibility to improve execution speed and throughput.4

5. Do More in Less Time by Disabling Debug – Debugging is a vital aspect to test system development, but it substantially slows down test execution in production environments. For instance, disabling subsequence tracing in test executive software improves execution performance. While this option removes real-time step tracing, it improves test throughput.2 And, be sure to remove breakpoints from your deployed application.

6. Reduce Code Analysis Time with Automated Tools – Automated test applications can result in large software projects that take countless hours to review for performance improvement. Take advantage of tools that can help you by automatically analyzing code for design flaws and limitations. Spending a little time up front to learn about software engineering tools can save you many frustrating hours in the long run.5

Driver-Level Software7. Upgrade System Performance with

New Drivers – Vendors periodically release new device driver versions to provide bug fixes, support technologies

such as 64-bit operating systems and multithreading, and add support for new hardware. Updating your drivers, regardless of the age of your hardware, adds compatibility with technologies that upgrade system performance. When updating, try the new drivers with your code on a development machine to confirm compatibility.6

8. Reduce Bus Limitations with Instrument Drivers – In addition to simplifying communication with traditional instruments, interchangeable virtual instrument (IVI) drivers offer advanced functionality to improve performance including state caching, multithreading, instrument simulation, and automatic range checking. State caching implements an engine that monitors the current state of the instrument to minimize the number of commands sent across the bus. Reducing unnecessary data transmissions can help improve test throughput.7

Make Forward-Looking InvestmentsEach test system is unique, so be innovative as you look to improve your particular system. If software optimization is not an option, take the time to learn about new testing techniques that can improve future test development such as software-defined instrumentation, parallel processing, and wireless and protocol aware test.8 It is never too late to learn something new, and it is never too early to prepare for the future.

– Jared Aho jared.aho@ni.com Jared Aho is the test software group manager at National Instruments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

– Murali Ravindran murali.ravindran@ni.com Murali Ravindran is the instrument control product manager at National Instruments. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA in entrepreneurship from The University of Oklahoma.

To read more in-depth articles about these techniques and view the references online, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9202.

1“ NI TestStand 4.1 – Accelerating Parallel Test.” 2“Best Practices for Improving NI TestStand System Performance.” 3“Optimizing Automated Test Applications for Multicore Processors with NI LabVIEW.”4“Creating Optimized Code.” 5“Software Engineering with LabVIEW.” 6“Upgrading to the Latest Version of LabVIEW.” 7“Improving Test Performance through Instrument Driver State Management.” 8“Innovation Drives Test Trends.”

The mark LabWindows is used under a license from Microsoft Corporation. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Figure 3. Designing parallel tests with parallel loops and pipelined tasks improves system throughput

by increasing execution speed.

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Embedded Industry Trend – Sensors Get Smart

Today’s engines are complex control systems that use embedded sensors for critical path feedback loops and performance and emission optimization. Besides the motor, modern vehicles contain hundreds of sensors in every system of the car, from parking assistance to tire pressure monitoring. Consumer electronics is another area teaming with embedded sensors. Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers, for instance, have completely changed the way you interact with mobile phones and gaming systems and protect your hard drives from data loss when dropped. Last year, accelerometers alone boasted more than $2.4 billion USD in sales. Pick your favorite phenomenon and there is probably a sensor for it, most likely an analog transducer. However, the current trend in embedded sensor technology is to shrink the entire acquisition chain – consisting of the transducer, amplifier, analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and a standard digital communication bus – down to one integrated circuit (IC). Although analog sensors will continue to be prevalent, this new trend toward digital sensors reduces cost, component count, and development time for integrating measurements into an embedded system. National Instruments is making integration of digital sensors into embedded systems based on the NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) platform more efficient. Collaborating with silicon vendors, NI identifies key measurement categories, corresponding sensor ICs, prototyping solutions, and digital communication intellectual property (IP) needs. NI now offers, and continues to expand, LabVIEW FPGA IP instrument driver-like interfaces for digital sensors; higher-level sensor drivers for desktop PCs and real-time operating systems; prototyping solutions;

and a circuit design suite, including layout tools, circuit models, and footprint files for deployment.

Taking Advantage of Embedded SensorsUnfortunately, there is no standard digital sensor communication bus. However, a survey of options reveals that Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) buses cover most measurement types and sensor families.

1. Prototyping and Verifying on the Desktop – It is common to connect an embedded sensor to a PC for algorithm engineering and dynamic performance verification of a sensor. While NI provides PC-based data acquisition (DAQ) devices for measuring common analog sensors, it may not be obvious how to integrate a digital embedded sensor into a measurement and control system on a PC. Because most digital sensors communicate through serial communication protocols, use a device that translates those bus protocols to a standard PC bus, such as the NI USB-8451 SPI/I2C interface. This device includes a high-level device driver, making it easy to access both SPI and I2C devices. The USB-8451 abstracts away the physical bus layer, providing a simple read/write API, similar to instrument control buses such as GPIB and RS232/RS485. Most embedded sensors then respond to commands to read and write internal storage and configuration registers containing their latest digitized data. NI understands that most embedded sensors are provided at the IC level – not with prototyping-ready packaging and cabling –

Feature

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Mobile Robotics

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National Semiconductor

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Microchip Technology

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Figure 1. Many traditional sensor companies are supporting new versions of their existing sensor platforms with digital interfaces for embedded applications.

Intake, compression, ignition, exhaust. If only the modern internal combustion engine was as simple as this four-stroke explanation.

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but the company is working with major digital sensor vendors to offer easier prototyping connectivity with little or no soldering and a path to volume system deployment with custom hardware design.

2. Deploying with NI Single-Board RIO – National Instruments is also making integrating digital sensors with FPGA-based RIO products easier by providing LabVIEW FPGA IP for SPI and I2C, specific sensor drivers, and circuit design resources for NI Multisim and Ultiboard software. You can download the low-level LabVIEW FPGA IP for SPI and I2C communication from the LabVIEW FPGA IPNet (ni.com/ipnet). Additionally, if you consider SPI and I2C to be as common to embedded sensors as GPIB is to instrument control, it makes sense to build higher-level, sensor-specific drivers similar to the NI instrument driver network (ni.com/idnet). On top of the low-level communication

bus IP, NI has created high-level LabVIEW FPGA instrument driver APIs for several specific sensor families and accompanying real-time and desktop FPGA interface examples. Finally, to integrate these chip-level embedded sensors, NI offers circuit design resources such as specific Multisim symbols, Ultiboard footprints, and a reference design for NI Single-Board RIO custom daughter cards.

Discovering New Embedded SolutionsEmbedded digital sensor technology has lowered the cost and simplified the inclusion of measurement into an embedded system. The proliferation of these new sensors is evident in everything from automobiles to handheld devices. National Instruments continues to provide efficient embedded solutions and is now simplifying the integration of this technology from prototype to deployment.

– Matt Spexarth matt.spexarth@ni.com Matt Spexarth is a product manager for NI Single-Board RIO at National Instruments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Kansas State University.

– Rick Kuhlman rick.kuhlman@ni.com Rick Kuhlman is a product manager for LabVIEW FPGA at National Instruments. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, as well as an MBA, from the University of Tennessee.

To download the embedded sensor e-kit with FPGA IP, embedded sensor drivers, and circuit design tools, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9203.

Figure 2. The USB-8451 provides a simple LabVIEW interface to a wide range of SPI and I2C digital sensors, such as the TI TMP175 temperature IC used in thousands of refrigerated vending machines.

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Figure 3. Connect to digital sensors with NI Single-Board RIO by downloading and integrating an SPI or I 2C communication core from LabVIEW FPGA IPNet.

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New RIO IF Transceiver Module Brings FPGAs to RF ApplicationsThe NI PXIe-5641R is a dual-input, dual-output intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver targeted at applications such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) test, spectral monitoring, real-time spectrum analysis, RF dynamic test, and software-defined radio (SDR). It features two 14-bit, 100 MS/s analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with built-in 20 MHz bandwidth digital downconverters (DDCs) and two 14-bit, 200 MS/s digital-to-analog converters (DACs) with built-in 20 MHz bandwidth digital upconverters (DUCs). This module also includes a Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T field-programmable gate array (FPGA) that you can program using the NI LabVIEW FPGA Module. This is the highest-performance programmable FPGA that NI offers, with 640 multipliers, more than 14,000 slices, and nearly 100,000 logic cells. With these features, the device can handle complex and high-speed signal processing, analysis, and modulation tasks. The NI PXIe-5641R is the first integrated IF transceiver on the PXI platform, and it works with user-programmable FPGA-based RF applications when paired with the NI PXI-5600 downconverter and NI PXI-5610 upconverter at frequencies up to 2.7 GHz and instantaneous bandwidths up to 20 MHz. Input and reconstruction filters on the NI PXIe-5641R provide more than 80 MHz of analog bandwidth, capable of interfacing with the 15 MHz IF output on the PXI-5600 and the 25 MHz IF input on the PXI-5610. With an NI PXIe-1065 chassis, you can connect two upconverters and two downconverters to a single NI PXIe-5641R for synchronized acquisition and generation. In addition, with high-performance storage solutions such as the NI 8260 1 TB in-chassis data storage module, you can continually record time domain IF data while performing measurements and analysis in real time on the FPGA of the transceiver module.

Programming Your IF Transceiver ModuleThere are three ways to program the NI PXIe-5641R. First, to minimize the time to first measurement, use the included precompiled FPGA personality along with an easy-to-use API on the host. This

configures the module as two synchronous input and two synchronous output channels and supports basic triggering. For more advanced FPGA-defined applications, use LabVIEW FPGA and the NI-RIO driver for high-speed communication between the graphical programming of both the host and FPGA. Next, the asynchronous timing wire, the latest addition to the LabVIEW FPGA Module, offers asynchronous communication between signal acquisition, processing, and generation blocks on the LabVIEW FPGA block diagram. Abstracting the first- in-first-out (FIFO)-based communication common in FPGA applications

significantly simplifies programming, so designers can focus on their algorithms rather than data management. Finally, with the LabVIEW FPGA RF Communication Library in NI Labs (ni.com/labs), you can use examples for modulation, demodulation, fractional resampling, and channel coding in your communications application.

To learn more about the new NI PXIe-5641R and programming with asynchronous wires, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9204.

Product In-Depth

Figure 2. You can pair the NI PXIe-5641R with NI upconverters and downconverters to generate and analyze frequencies up to 2.7 GHz, and use asynchronous wires with the

LabVIEW FPGA Module to greatly simplify programming.

Figure 1. The NI PXIe-5641R IF transceiver module combines high-performance ADCs and DACs with LabVIEW FPGA programming.

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Address Three Top Software Engineering Challenges with LabVIEW Tools

Product In-Depth

Software Validation Developer Suite Option

LabVIEW Application BuilderLabVIEW Real-Time ModuleLabVIEW FPGA ModuleLabVIEW embedded modules

Deployment

LabVIEW Unit TestFramework ToolkitLabVIEW VI Analyzer

Validation

LabVIEW Desktop ExecutionTrace Toolkit

Development

LabVIEW Statechart ModuleObject OrientationNI TestStand

Application Architecture

NI Requirements Gateway

Requirements Gathering

The software engineering process consists of multiple phases throughout the development life cycle.

As applications become more complex, software developers face a growing challenge of delivering high-quality code while meeting tight development schedules. As a result, software engineers have adopted regimented practices or “models” for the development life cycle to ensure code quality and sustainability while maximizing efficiency. For programmers using NI LabVIEW software, NI offers a variety of tools that can improve and automate the development process, thereby reducing development time and implementing more thorough testing and code evaluation. The software engineering process consists of several phases including design, development, and validation. Skipping any mandated tasks such as requirements gathering or application architecture can create unreliable results and increase the time required to find and fix problems. When following this process, the time needed to write code is often just a small part of the time and effort required.

1 Gather and Manage Requirements – Requirements are typically living documents that require changes and modifications throughout the development life cycle. The earlier the changes in the process, the less risky they are. However, when it is necessary to modify code or specifications, it is critical that developers have the tools to help them understand how these changes can impact other parts of the application. NI Requirements Gateway provides automated traceability between requirements and implementation as well as tests. This includes the ability to generate traceability matrices and documentation for large applications that prove where and how requirements were covered. In many aspects, NI Requirements Gateway is the most sophisticated method to document LabVIEW code.

2 Validate Code and Perform Regression Testing Requirements-based testing and validation is a well-recognized part of the software engineering process and standard practice

for anyone who has to prove that an application works as expected, which is more difficult than simply proving the application runs – the application must work correctly. This task requires documentation and test results that demonstrate the application behaves exactly the way it was designed – evidence that may be required by the customer or a quality assurance group, for example. Developers can integrate tools such as the LabVIEW Unit Test Framework Toolkit and NI Requirements Gateway to automate this process.

3 Identify the Source of Problems or Bugs – Identifying the source and fixing the cause of unexpected or undesirable software behavior can be a tedious, time-consuming, and expensive task for developers. Even code that is syntactically correct and functionally complete is often still contaminated with problems such as memory leaks or daemon tasks that can impact performance or lead to incorrect behavior. These oversights can be difficult to reproduce and even more difficult to locate, especially in large, complex applications. LabVIEW developers can take advantage of tools such as the LabVIEW VI Analyzer and the LabVIEW Desktop Execution Trace Toolkit for a combination of static and dynamic code analysis to screen for problems and isolate their sources.

Graphical programming saves time and money by abstracting many of the most difficult tasks associated with software development. With the increasing amount of LabVIEW applications, NI has invested in software engineering tools to further improve productivity and reduce time spent on development tasks other than actually writing code.

To learn about other software engineering tools for LabVIEW, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9205.

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Customize Your Chip Characterization with NI FlexRIO and LabVIEW FPGA

As new semiconductors continue to push the boundaries of speed and performance, engineers have turned to field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to perform increasingly customized and complex characterization tests. NI FlexRIO provides a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) option for FPGA-based tests with NI LabVIEW FPGA graphical programming, a PXI FPGA module, and customizable front-end I/O. For example, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) can require such a solution due to their high-speed interfaces that deliver large amounts of data for real-time analysis. By offering a total interface bandwidth of 8.25 GB/s to the FPGA, which can be configured as 132 single-ended lines at 400 Mb/s or 66 differential lines at 1 Gb/s, NI FlexRIO helps engineers connect to and characterize a wide variety of serial and parallel component interfaces.

Gaining Physical Connectivity to Test ComponentsThere are three ways to gain physical connectivity between NI FlexRIO and a component such as an ADC. For the shortest time to measurement and the simplest interface, future adapter modules from NI will incorporate the latest and most popular ADCs from leading manufacturers, providing the easiest path to custom evaluation. Another option is to use a high-speed digital I/O adapter module such as the NI 6581 to cable to an ADC evaluation board, which offers access to the digital data output lines of the ADC, as shown in Figure 1. This has the advantage of versatility with a single adapter module capable of connecting to a variety of semiconductor devices.

The final and highest-performance option is to use the NI FlexRIO Adapter Module Development Kit (MDK) to build a custom NI FlexRIO adapter module with the particular ADC in need of characterization. With this approach, you have the advantage of a custom design optimized for characterization with the tightest integration between the FPGA and ADC. After you develop an interface, the next step is to transfer and analyze the data. While vendor-provided ADC evaluation boards commonly have small onboard memory limitations and low data bandwidth between the ADC and host computer, NI FlexRIO offers 128 MB of onboard DRAM and 1.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth. It also features DMA streaming on the PXI bus at rates in excess of 100 MB/s for acquiring large data sets for user-defined characterization.

Test Techniques

Figure 1. The NI 6581 adapter module cabled to an ADC evaluation board provides a flexible method of FPGA-based characterization.

Figure 2. Using the deep onboard memory of NI FlexRIO and LabVIEW FPGA programming, you can perform accurate ADC phase noise

measurements at a 100 Hz offset from a 10 MHz carrier.

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Acquiring Close-In Phase Noise Measurements One ADC measurement that requires significant waveform size in addition to hundreds or thousands of waveforms is close-in phase noise. You can perform this measurement by capturing a record of a single tone sinusoid near the full-scale range of the ADC. Then, convert the waveform data into the frequency domain, take an average of multiple frequency domain measurements for greater statistical confidence, and calculate the close-in phase noise as the amplitude of the signal at a small offset from the fundamental tone, usually specified at 100 Hz and 1, 10, and 100 kHz. One challenge in performing this test is that measuring small frequency offsets from the fundamental tone requires high frequency-domain resolution, and thus long acquisitions. For example, to measure the 100 Hz offset phase noise with 10 Hz frequency resolution, you must acquire 1/10 Hz (or 100 ms) of data. This equals 20 MB of data for a 16-bit 100 MS/s ADC – much more than the amount of memory available on most evaluation boards. To accommodate this test, you can employ the deep memory and high-throughput custom interface of NI FlexRIO.

Calculating ADC Bit Error RateWhile you can accommodate some ADC tests with lots of memory and high-throughput data transfer to a host PC, others require quick data processing. Programming an NI FlexRIO FPGA module with LabVIEW FPGA provides an intuitive method to meet these requirements. For example, the noise-induced instability of an ADC can sometimes produce a large error in the output code, often referred to as a “sparkle code.” Due to their sporadic nature and relative infrequency, characterizing the probability of sparkle codes in the output of an ADC is a time-consuming task that must be performed in hardware and, most often, on an FPGA. A common method to test for

sparkle codes is to apply a stimulus to an ADC that changes at a rate of less than one least-significant bit (LSB) per sample. If the output code varies by more than the expected sum of Gaussian quantization and other sources of noise, this point is flagged as a sparkle code. You can determine the effective bit error rate (BER) of the ADC using the FPGA to flag and accumulate these occurrences throughout several hours or days. To augment the custom test capabilities of NI FlexRIO, the PXI platform offers a variety of standard instruments for characterizing ADCs such as power supplies, digital multimeters, and arbitrary waveform generators that can be synchronized and triggered on the PXI backplane to increase test accuracy. When programmed with LabVIEW and LabVIEW FPGA, these systems can automate the same evaluation tests across multiple ADCs to help ensure measurement repeatability as well as development efficiency.

– Ryan Verret ryan.verret@ni.com Ryan Verret is a product manager for NI signal generators and FPGA-enabled products for test applications at National Instruments. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Rice University.

– Travis White travis.white@ni.com Travis White is a product manager for modular instrumentation at National Instruments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rice University.

To discuss additional measurement techniques with the NI FlexRIO community, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9206.

Figure 3. This LabVIEW FPGA code can determine when the ADC output transitions more than a set threshold. Such events are flagged and recorded to determine the BER of the ADC.

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Hands-On Introduction to LabVIEW for Scientists and Engineers

John Essick Oxford University Press

Hands-On Introduction to LabVIEW for Scientists

and Engineers takes a learn-by-doing approach to

developing computer-based skills for daily experimental work. Ideal as a course

textbook or as a self-study supplement, the text explores practical programming

solutions for interesting and relevant projects using NI LabVIEW software.

At $29.95 USD, this is one of the most affordable LabVIEW books available.

To learn more about this textbook, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9208.

Circuits

Fawwaz Ulaby and Michel M. Maharbiz National Technology and Science Press

Circuits incorporates NI Multisim software and

provides a set of timeless principles, problem-solving

techniques, and a foundation for subsequent studies.

This new text employs the same concise explanations that characterize the

senior author’s textbooks on electromagnetics, which have been adopted by

more than 100 universities in the United States and by a comparable number

of international universities.

To adopt this textbook for your course, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9209.

Lunacy Challenge Incorporates CompactRIO at FIRST ChampionshipThe energy and excitement was overwhelming as 10,000 students and their robots converged on the Georgia Dome floor April 15–18. Students, mentors, and parents traveled from every U.S. state and more than 50 countries to participate in the 2009 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition Championship. This year, the high school participants in the varsity-level competition built their 130 lb robots using the NI CompactRIO embedded controller as the “brain” for their robotic inventions. The challenge, called “Lunacy,” tasked students with maneuvering a robot pulling a trailer on a nearly frictionless playing surface. Teams implemented complex vision processing, traction control, fine motor control, proportional integral derivative (PID) algorithms, and autonomous control that resulted in a variety of nimble robots with ingenious designs. Creative engineering and problem solving were on display as the teams’ robots careened around the playing field. FIRST continues to inspire and motivate high school students to solve a difficult engineering problem while displaying teamwork and professionalism. The CompactRIO controller provided every team with powerful, industry-standard technology based on the NI LabVIEW graphical system design platform. The hardware system includes a 2M gate Xilinx field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a Freescale PowerPC processor, flexible and reprogrammable I/O, and a rugged form factor. The system combines an open, embedded architecture with small size, extreme

ruggedness, and hot-swappable industrial I/O modules. Programs such as FIRST offer students the opportunity to experience real-world engineering and a way to learn about math and science. National Instruments maintains that students are the innovators of tomorrow, and the company helps develop the necessary technology for effective, hands-on learning efforts that engage and inspire students.

To see a complete review of this year’s competition, including videos and footage from the Georgia Dome, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9207.

NI in Academia

A robot shoots soccer balls into a net during a previous FIRST competition. Students are tasked with solving real-world challenges through robotics.

Get Introduced to NI Software with New Textbooks

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Did You Know LabVIEW Could Convert Your PC or SBC into a Real-Time System?Chances are you already own a PC that can serve as your next reliable deterministic test or control system, and this PC is most likely running a general-purpose OS, such as a Microsoft Windows or Linux® OS. These OSs provide an effective platform for developing and running your noncritical applications but fail to meet the requirements for critical applications, such as machine control or extended duration tests. Such OSs are also optimized to run a variety of applications simultaneously, ensuring that all applications receive some processing time. As a result, the system is unable to differentiate between high-priority tasks and lower ones, making it impossible to guarantee a response time for your critical applications. In contrast, real-time OSs give you the ability to prioritize tasks so that the most critical task always takes control of the processor when needed, guaranteeing reliable, predictable execution. Using the NI LabVIEW Real-Time Module, you can convert a compatible PC or single-board computer (SBC) into dedicated hardware running a real-time OS. With a free utility from ni.com, you can quickly verify system compatibility via a USB or floppy drive.

Gain Efficiency Running Real-Time ApplicationsWithin the LabVIEW Real-Time environment, you can develop applications with the same intuitive graphical programming approach as you use for LabVIEW software on the desktop. At run time, send

your application over Ethernet to run with absolute reliability on the real-time system. While your application runs, you can continue to interact with the front panel and block diagram to debug the application with controls, indicators, execution highlighting, probes, and breakpoints. For deployment, you can configure applications to run headless when your real-time system is powered, and optionally take advantage of the embedded Web server to access your application from any Web browser.

Take Advantage of I/O SupportThe LabVIEW Real-Time environment works with a wide variety of PCI I/O from National Instruments, so you can avoid the time and cost of integrating I/O yourself. PCs normally offer at least three PCI slots for use with I/O boards, which is sufficient for many applications. LabVIEW for Windows applications that use PCI boards such as multifunction data acquisition, field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based reconfigurable I/O, or high-accuracy modular instruments, can seamlessly migrate to a PC running LabVIEW Real-Time, as shown in the figure. Prototyping your next real-time system on a PC or SBC provides a flexible, low-cost option with the ability to work with hardware from multiple vendors. Finish your projects faster with intuitive graphical development and a variety of I/O drivers from National Instruments.

To validate your PC or SBC and download a free 30-day trial of LabVIEW Real-Time, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9210.

LabVIEW Everywhere

++

Development Machine Real-Time Target

Create reliable, deterministicapplications using the same intuitivegraphical programming approach

Migrate to PXI with minimal codechanges due to consistent driver APIsbetween NI PCI and PXI hardware

LabVIEW Graphical Programming

Seamless Migration

Use a wide variety of supportedPCI-based measurement devices

Breadth of I/O

Take advantage of multicoreperformance with symmetricalmultiprocessing (SMP)

Multicore

Purchase low-cost hardware foruse as a LabVIEW Real-Time target

Value

Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

Do you want to know what National Instruments developers are doing with LabVIEW, how they are doing it, and where LabVIEW is going next? Read Inside LabVIEW, the latest software blog written by John Pasquarette, NI vice president of software marketing – “The LabVIEW Dude” – for valuable insight on the current state and future of graphical programming.

To check out his blog, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9211.

Get the Inside Scoop with “The LabVIEW Dude”

Using the NI LabVIEW Real-Time Module, you can convert an existing PC or SBC into a reliable, deterministic real-time system.

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Engineers and scientists are using CompactRIO hardware as a low-cost reconfigurable control and acquisition system designed for both structural health monitoring and smart grid applications requiring high performance and reliability. This programmable automation controller (PAC), powered by field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, combines an open embedded architecture with hot-swappable industrial I/O modules and is ideal for harsh conditions.

Special Focus

CompactRIO Provides the Ideal Hardware Platform

Special Focus

Virtual Instrumentation Helps Engineers Upgrade InfrastructureTo meet the transportation and energy needs of tomorrow, engineers must

develop intelligent methods to efficiently test and monitor physical structures

and energy grids. Throughout the world, National Instruments customers are

using virtual instrumentation to develop smarter equipment that improves

the safety and efficiency of infrastructures.

Structural Health Monitoring – Address Aging Infrastructure Currently, one in four bridges in the United States is classified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and the total estimated cost of needed repairs and upgrades for the nation’s infrastructure is $2.2 trillion USD, according to a recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Increasingly, structural and civil engineers are turning to sensors and instrumentation technology to monitor actual stresses, movements, and dynamics, including sensing defects such as cracks and corrosion. Such structural health monitoring systems help engineers better understand the condition of large and complex structures, monitor their real-time operation, and better predict their performance and safety. Practical, wide-scale deployment of structural health monitoring systems requires the convergence of modern instrumentation and communication technologies, reliable and rugged mechanicals, and software for intelligent data processing and management. Structural engineers are implementing such systems today, using NI CompactRIO, combined with NI LabVIEW graphical programming and NI DIAdem data management software, in bridges, stadiums, dams, and other structures.

Smart Grids – Get More from the Same Lump of Coal According to the annual review by the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States alone consumed more than 100 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of energy in 2007. The majority of this kind of energy is consumed a significant distance away from the place of production, and the efficiency of the grid carrying the energy used for electric power can have a huge financial and environmental impact. By measuring and monitoring transmission status along the grid, utility companies and municipalities can ensure a higher level of transmission efficiency, thereby saving massive amounts of energy, money, and environmental resources. Today, several NI customers are working on solutions for the energy problems of tomorrow. Texas A&M University researchers have developed distribution fault anticipation technology to detect grid problems such as faulty switches, cables, or even vegetation intrusion based on electrical signatures, and are investigating the implementation of this technology on the CompactRIO platform. By distributing these instruments, engineers can, in theory, detect faults and precursors to faults.

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Virtual Instrumentation Applied with CompactRIO

Monitoring the Olympic Stadium in China

For online monitoring and analysis of power quality, ELCOM, a company specializing in system-level solutions, has created a virtual instrument built on LabVIEW and NI dynamic signal analysis hardware. These nodes perform functions such as fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis, energy monitoring, flicker analysis, and transient recording. The virtual instrumentation approach helped ELCOM to quickly develop and test its own algorithms as well as deploy on an easily expandable hardware platform.

To view more information on power grids, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9213.

‘‘ We continue to use the power and performance of PC technology and NI products to implement more time-demanding advanced signal processing algorithms.

– Petr Bilik, Manager, ELCOM’’

Analyzing Power Quality

NI customers have been monitoring some of the recently constructed megastructures in China, including the 2008 Summer Olympic venues in Beijing, the 104-story World Trade Center in Shanghai, and the 8,266 m cable-stayed bridge in Shantou. For these projects, CGM Engineering, a California-based company, used a solution featuring CompactRIO hardware and LabVIEW software. The objective of this instrumentation project was to develop a state-of-the-art solution to monitor structural health characteristics – including stability, reliability, and livability – in real time by using contemporary computing and communication technology.

To view more information on infrastructure technologies, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9212.

’’‘‘ We deployed an embedded monitoring system with unmatched competitive accuracy,

price, and flexibility by using LabVIEW and CompactRIO as the computing platform.

– Chris McDonald, Vice President, CGM Engineering

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National Instruments recently released 15 I/O modules that expand the measurement communication capabilities of NI Single-Board RIO embedded control and data acquisition (DAQ) devices. Combining the entire reconfigurable I/O (RIO) architecture – composed of an embedded real-time processor, reconfigurable field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and analog and digital I/O – on a single printed circuit board (PCB), NI Single-Board RIO devices are ideal for applications that require flexibility, high performance, and reliability in a small form factor. You can integrate the 15 new embedded NI C Series modules with NI Single-Board RIO devices to add advanced capabilities for applications such as high-voltage power quality monitoring, high-resolution voltage and current data logging, and strain monitoring. The new embedded C Series modules are based on packaged C Series modules,

so you can add measurement quality I/O to your application by plugging any combination of the new modules directly into the three I/O expansion ports on NI Single-Board RIO devices. The 15 modules include three-channel, 300 V analog input; four-port RS485/RS422 four-channel, 24-bit bridge/strain; and four-channel,

24-bit universal modules. Because NI Single-Board RIO is built on the same RIO architecture as NI CompactRIO modular systems, you can design and prototype your applications on CompactRIO and then deploy your higher-volume production systems to the lower-cost CompactRIO integrated system or NI Single-Board RIO devices.

To view specifications for all the new embedded C Series modules, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9214.

Product In-Depth

The LabVIEW FPGA RF Communication Library 2.0 on NI Labs has a set of fixed-point field-programmable gate array (FPGA) intellectual property (IP) written in the NI LabVIEW FPGA to handle high data rates and streaming applications in RF and communications. The library

includes fractional resample, phase-shift keying (PSK) modulators and demodulators; a Reed-Solomon encoder and decoder; a Viterbi decoder; and utility blocks. The blocks complement the already rich set of RF IP in the NI Modulation Toolkit for multicore host processors by adding

support to implement key RF building blocks on an FPGA. Although you can use these blocks on any NI FPGA- based hardware, the most applicable hardware with I/O for implementing software-defined radio applications is the new NI PXIe-5641R IF transceiver, featuring two channels of intermediate frequency (IF) inputs and outputs with a user-programmable FPGA for processing. The Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T FPGA on this hardware is specifically tailored for complex RF and DSP applications with 640 multipliers, 14,000 slices, and 100,000 logic cells.

To explore IP for LabVIEW FPGA in the RF and communications library and provide your feedback, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9215.

These VIs show a complete receiver channel implemented in the FPGA. Filtering, timing, recovery, demodulation, and channel decoding take the downconverted I and Q data to a decoded received stream.

New Suite of Embedded I/O Modules for NI Single-Board RIO

New embedded C Series I/O modules provide advanced measurement and communication capabilities such as

high-voltage monitoring and RS485/RS422 communication.

Explore RF IP for LabVIEW FPGA on NI Labs

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Simulating a Wind Power System One of the latest evolutions in wind power turbines is the use of doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs), which are increasing in popularity due to their ability to work on high-torque, variable speed conditions. Compared to fixed-speed wind turbines or permanent magnet generator-based speed systems, DFIGs offer several benefits: the capability to work on different speeds, a smaller size and lower cost compared to a permanent magnetic generator, and the power electronics ability to partially transfer a section of the power generated. The simulation of these systems is important to analyze the effect of a large wind farm on the grid, as in the case of Denmark, where the energy from wind is projected to be more than 25 percent of total energy use.

By using NI LabVIEW software and the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module, researchers can implement a full wind system simulator including the wind turbine, mechanical drive train, generator,

power grid, and controller. The simulation framework provides a suitable numerical simulation environment for a testing system that would otherwise be too expensive to build. It also offers the capability to analyze the interactions between hybrid mechanical-electrical systems, and it gives users the power to model so they can improve their models with high-fidelity effects such as deep-bar induction generators and more complex drive-train models.

To explore key concepts and other control methods for wind turbine systems, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9216.

To better understand how sounds from turbines, motors, and other mechanical systems affect humans, engineers have been taking acoustical measurements for decades in industries such as automotive and aerodynamics. Until recently, the analysis performed on those measurements has been quite simple – sound-pressure level, octave analysis, fast Fourier transform (FFT), and basic weighting filters. While these algorithms reveal the decibel level or frequency content of a signal, they do not pinpoint several important phenomena that determine their desirability to the human ear. To move beyond simple noise-level measurements to practical environmental noise measurements, acoustic engineers have developed sound quality algorithms to better explain how the human ear perceives sound. These algorithms combine the psychoacoustical, physical, and cognitive aspects of sound to offer new performance metrics to

design engineers. Example applications of these algorithms in the automotive noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) industry include designing an engine with a more pleasing sound or creating a door handle with a more soothing click. Sound quality algorithms are also applicable in the production of consumer electronics. These algorithms offer engineers the tools they need to design a better sounding product, increasing the chances of consumer adoption. These sound quality algorithms,

including ISO 532B Stationary Loudness, Time-Varying Loudness, Aures Roughness, Aures Sharpness, Aures Tonality, and Fluctuation Strength, are now available in the NI Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite.

To read more about each of these sound quality algorithms, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9217.

Product In-Depth

By using LabVIEW as the design environment, users can easily move their software simulations to hardware-in-the-loop

(HIL) testing applications without having to generate code.

New sound quality algorithms help engineers measure psychoacoustical, physical, and cognitive aspects.

Sound Quality Algorithms Optimize NVH Applications

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New In-Chassis High-Speed Data Streaming Module for PXI Express

NI AudioMASTER Adds S/PDIF Digital Audio Test Capabilities

Many test and measurement applications in the consumer electronics, automotive, semiconductor, and telecommunication industries require real-time data streaming to and from disk at high data rates. This is usually necessary for streaming data from either a small set of high-speed data channels or a large set of lower-speed data channels. In addition to streaming data at high rates, many of these applications need a solution that is rugged, portable, and compact in size. To address these needs, National Instruments now offers the NI 8260, an in-chassis high-speed storage module for PXI Express systems with data streaming capabilities at 200 MB/s with up to 1 TB of total storage space. The NI 8260 holds up to four 2.5 in. serial ATA (SATA) drives

and provides hard-disk and solid-state drive options. A PXI Express system including this module with solid-state drives delivers a high-speed data streaming solution capable of withstanding high operational shock and vibration. This feature is crucial for applications

that require in-field testing or off-air signal recording. Previously, this functionality was available only with expensive, custom data recording systems. With the NI 8260, NI now offers a low-cost commercial off-the-shelf high-speed data streaming solution for rugged, portable, and compact systems.

To view specifications and pricing information for the NI 8260, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9218.

NI AudioMASTER is a set of analog and digital audio solutions based on NI TestStand software for validation and production test. NI AudioMASTER 6.0 features S/PDIF capability using an NI 7813R R Series device and the new NI CB-2180 digital audio accessory. You can use the software to analyze S/PDIF signals encoded in linear pulse code modulation (PCM) or AC-3. For linear PCM, it supports two-channel formats with eight, 16, 20, or 24 bits per sample and

sampling frequencies from 22 to 192 kHz. For AC-3, it works with up to 5.1 channel configurations with five channels representing right front, center, left front, right rear, and left rear, plus one low-frequency effect (LFE) channel. The CB-2180 digital audio accessory provides two inputs, each with a selectable BNC for coaxial or TOSLINK for optical connection. You can connect up to four CB-2180 accessories to an NI 7813R device for a total of eight S/PDIF inputs, which simplifies the fixture required for multidevice test. In addition, NI AudioMASTER 6.0 offers analog audio testing capability with NI 446x dynamic signal analysis devices, which provide 24-bit resolution and sample rates up to 204.8 kS/s. The software features measurements using single tone, multitone, amplitude sweep, frequency sweep, and step-response analysis. These combinations deliver ideal audio test solutions for devices ranging from set-top boxes and media players to headphones and loudspeakers.

To view specifications and pricing information for NI AudioMASTER 6.0, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9219.

The NI 8260 provides an in-chassis storage option for compact, portable high-speed data streaming applications.

NI AudioMASTER offers solutions for analog and digital audio test.

Product In-Depth

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NI RF PXI Platform Expands with New GPS Simulation ToolkitThe NI GPS Simulation Toolkit 1.5 for LabVIEW expands the NI RF PXI platform to provide a high-performance solution for global positioning system (GPS) receiver testing that exceeds the capabilities of traditional box instruments. Take advantage of new satellite simulation features including extended time duration of non-repeating GPS satellite signals and the ability to customize motion profiles for mobile receiver tests.

Scenario-Specific TestingWith the latest version of the toolkit, you have access to an easy-to-use graphical API for validating and testing GPS receivers. You can simulate C/A codes for up to 12 satellites in the L1 band. The toolkit also adds new capabilities for generating custom motion trajectories, to help you simulate the signals that GPS receivers capture on specific routes. With the ability to simulate these signals using software-defined instrumentation, you can achieve customized and repeatable tests featuring route-specific signals without performing expensive drive tests.

Extended Simulation TimeThe GPS Simulation Toolkit gives you the ability to create waveforms with up to 24 hours of non-repeating GPS satellite signals for extended reliability testing and superior control over signal impairments introduced during design verification tests. This allows for targeted and isolated troubleshooting to improve and verify your GPS receiver design. Additionally, you can adjust individual satellite signal powers during signal generation for dynamic range and scenario-specific tests.

Repeatable and Isolated GPS Receiver TestThis toolkit is part of the NI RF PXI platform for GPS simulation and test, which also includes the NI PXIe-5672/73 vector signal generator, NI 8260 in-chassis RAID hard drive, NI PXIe-8106 dual-core controller, and NI PXIe-1062Q 8-slot chassis.

To view a two-minute demonstration video on the toolkit, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9220.

Product In-Depth

National Instruments reports its 2008 corporate citizenship performance and states 2009 goals in the company’s first citizenship report, available on ni.com/citizenship. The report outlines how NI maintains an innovative corporate culture, provides tools that empower customers to improve the

world, works to reduce its environmental footprint, and helps improve local communities.

To view the report online, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9221.

2008 Citizenship summarynational instruments

NI Issues Inaugural Corporate Citizenship Report Because small, entrepreneurial

medical technology companies have developed many of the medical technology advancements throughout the past 20 years, NI has created a grant program that will award up to $25,000 USD in software and training to as many as 40 selected start-up medical device companies that are evaluating NI hardware, such as NI CompactRIO, as a component of their medical devices.

To submit your application to the National Instruments Medical Device Grant Program, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9222.

NI Software Grant Funds Medical Device Development

Using the GPS Simulation Toolkit, you can create custom LabVIEW software to meet your application needs and incorporate

real-time GPS receiver feedback into your test solution.

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Bring Classroom Theory to Life with NI ELVIS II+ and Plug-In Boards

New NI Digital Electronics FPGA Board Connects to NI ELVIS

Connecting theory to real-world applications in an engaging way has always been a challenge for educators. With the NI Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS) design and prototyping platform, educators worldwide are bringing theory to life through hands-on, project-based learning. National Instruments is extending the NI ELVIS family, with NI ELVIS II+, which features a 100 MS/s oscilloscope. The 20 MHz optional filter, vertical offsets, and horizontal triggering on this new platform make it easier for students to explore high-frequency components in the frequency domain, characterize circuits, and investigate rise times. NI ELVIS II+ continues to be an integral part of the NI electronics education platform, combining simulation and measurements

from NI ELVIS inside the NI Multisim capture-and-simulation environment. This platform can also extend your lab beyond measurements and circuits with NI ELVIS plug-in boards and courseware from third parties including Emona Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, and Quanser to teach telecommunications, microcontrollers, and control design. Explore digital electronics with a

new plug-in board from National Instruments, which takes advantage of a Xilinx Spartan-3E field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

To take a guided tour of the NI ELVIS platform, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9223.

Educators can teach digital design concepts to all engineering majors, from electrical engineering to biomedical engineering, with the new NI Digital Electronics FPGA Board. Powered by NI LabVIEW and LabVIEW FPGA Module software and programmable with Xilinx ISE tools, the NI Digital Electronics FPGA Board can be used to teach digital design concepts, ranging from basics, such as combinational and sequential circuits, to advanced concepts, such as designing an arithmetic logic unit and building test benches. For electrical engineering classes involving VHDL/Verilog, students can reuse the curriculum with the Xilinx ISE tools and target the NI Digital Electronics FPGA Board to avoid doing any extra work. In addition to being programmable with Xilinx ISE tools, the NI Digital Electronics FPGA Board connects to

the NI Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS) design and prototyping platform. Thus, students can take advantage of the comprehensive suite of 12 instruments to build real-world test

benches for testing their applications on the field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Because users can program the board with the LabVIEW and LabVIEW FPGA environments, even non-electrical engineering educators can take advantage of this board to teach digital design concepts with the intuitive, graphical system design paradigm of LabVIEW. The board also comes with prewritten curriculum for use with both the Xilinx ISE tools and LabVIEW, and the labs include sections showing how to use NI ELVIS to build test benches for the experiments.

To download sample experiments, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9224.

NI ELVIS II+ continues to provide a hands-on learning platform for students and includes a 100 MS/s oscilloscope.

Product In-Depth

Users can program the NI Digital Electronics FPGA Board with the LabVIEW and

LabVIEW FPGA environments.

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On-Demand Training Offers Free Self-Paced Learning Options Increase your NI hardware and software application development skills with the National Instruments on-demand training program. On-demand training is an ongoing series of self-paced e-learning modules that are exclusively available for free to software maintenance program members. These training modules cover a wide range of subjects including hardware and software features, application areas, and development best practices. Each on-demand training module lasts about 15 minutes with a written script of the instructor’s dialogue to help you follow along. Quiz questions are included in each module to test your retention of the material. In addition, most modules feature a demonstration and exercise to help you practice the concepts learned. National Instruments is expanding its on-demand training library and has recently released more than 15 new training modules. One newly released module, titled “Importing External Code to LabVIEW FPGA Using CLIP,” gives an overview of Component-Level Intellectual Property (CLIP) and teaches you how to incorporate the CLIP Node into your LabVIEW FPGA Project. Another recently released series of modules is the NI TestStand Advanced Architecture Series, which includes two different modules covering the process module, granularity, and other important factors in sequence structure in NI TestStand. An exercise is included to help you explore the results of customizing and overriding a callback in NI TestStand.

On-demand training is included with NI software maintenance programs, such as the Standard Service Program (SSP). Software maintenance programs also help you stay up-to-date on the latest technology through software updates and maintenance releases and save time with direct access to technical support from NI applications engineers. All customers automatically receive a one-year SSP membership with the purchase of most NI application software including NI Developer Suite.

To view on-demand training modules, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9225.

Services and Support

Take advantage of training without the travel expenses with National Instruments on-demand training.

A series consists of multiple related on-demand modules bundled together. View these series in the Services Resource Center:

NI TestStand Advanced Architecture Series■■

Understanding Motion Series■■

IVI Drivers Series■■

LabVIEW Control Design Basics Series■■

To access on-demand training for these and other courses, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9227.

NI Launches Series of On-Demand Modules

View these new training modules in the Services Resource Center:

Importing External Code to LabVIEW FPGA Using CLIP■■

Dynamic Signal Acquisition and Sensor Specifications■■

TestStand Expressions■■

To access on-demand training for these and other courses, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9226.

Three New On-Demand Training Modules in the SRC

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How to Integrate Your Tools into the LabVIEW Environment

These add-ons range from custom steps in NI TestStand, to aerospace toolkits for LabVIEW, to field-programmable gate array (FPGA) intellectual property (IP) function blocks. The add-ons are either sold from third parties or offered freely to other members in the LabVIEW community. To streamline the development of add-ons and help selected NI collaborators more effectively market their tools, National Instruments has created a process for engaging the company and developing tools. If you have such a tool or an idea for a tool that you would like to integrate with LabVIEW, keep in mind the following recommended processes.

Work with NIBefore getting into the technical details, take a look at the following five steps for engaging NI in tool development.

1. Engage NI – Whether you are a National Instruments Alliance Partner or working with NI for the first time, the first step is to connect with NI and find resources to get your product development under way. (Read more details under the “Take the Next Step” section of this article.)

2. Develop Your Product – From a technical perspective, this is the most critical step. To offer a seamless level of integration, NI provides APIs you can use to plug into the environment. You can find more details on this step later in this article.

3. Market Your Product – There are several ways to get the word out about your new add-on. One way is through the LabVIEW Tools Network, which provides a marketplace to promote your products to the LabVIEW community. Selected applicants whose tools meet certain requirements for code quality and documentation are identified under the Compatible with LabVIEW program on this network.

Developer’s View

55

444 333

22

11

Feature Request SubmissionNotification of Technical Issues

Provide Feedback

Customer ExperienceInstall ProcessDownload/Eval

Deliver Product

Web PageData SheetNIWeek Strategy

Market Your Product

Technical ResourcesTechnical APIs from NIProduct Certification

Develop Your Product

Application ProcessBusiness Best Practices

Engage NI

Figure 1. Use this flowchart as a step-by-step process for involving NI on developing a tool.

For the past decade, Christian Altenbach from UCLA has been programming with NI LabVIEW software. Already a member of the LabVIEW Champions program, Altenbach recently reached another milestone when he posted for the 10,000th time on the NI Discussion Forums, earning him the online status, “Knight of NI.”

To join Jeff Kodosky, the “Father of LabVIEW,” in congratulating and thanking Altenbach for his achievement, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9229.

A New Knight of NI

As NI LabVIEW has expanded throughout the years, engineers have applied the software to new domains, leading many developers to create LabVIEW add-ons that plug into the LabVIEW platform.

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4. Deliver Your Product – When using a LabVIEW tool, the customer experience should be a seamless integration, and NI is here to help. Two important aspects include the install process and the download/evaluation process of a tool.

5. Provide Feedback to NI – Be sure to submit feature requests and notify NI of any technical issues you experienced while developing your tool.

Develop Your ToolNow that you have looked at the process for engaging NI, it is time to dive into the technical aspects of developing your tool – primarily, how to use technologies in LabVIEW technical APIs from NI to build an add-on.

Use Case No. 1: Connect LabVIEW to Another Stand-Alone Tool or EnvironmentEngineers who use LabVIEW oftentimes use other technical or business tools as part of their daily jobs. For instance, the LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office is an example of the connection between LabVIEW and Microsoft Office products. Similarly, LabVIEW and SolidWorks software work together to bridge design and test. Most of the functions required to implement such a connection are located within the LabVIEW palettes and include the following:

Call Library Node, ■■

Code Interface Node .NET■■

Formula Node■■

File I/O■■

TCP/IP■■

Script Node■■

ActiveX/COM■■

Use Case No. 2: Build a Toolkit with a Collection of VIs A collection of VIs is perhaps the most common way for a collaborator to add value to the LabVIEW platform. For example, many Alliance Partners have vertical expertise in domains such as automotive, industrial control, or RF/communications. With VIs bundled into a sellable toolkit, these Alliance Partners can share expertise with a wide range of LabVIEW users who may be outside their geographic regions. Examples of this type of integration include the following:

VI ■■

FPGA IP ■■

Express VI ■■

NI TestStand Custom Step ■■

Vision Builder Custom Step ■■

DIAdem DataFinder Plug-In ■■

Use Case No. 3: Customize the LabVIEW ExperienceThis type of add-on directly modifies how the developer’s workflow looks when developing G code. This creates a more customized experience within the environment during code edit

time. NI is working to provide APIs that facilitate this type of add-on, including the following:

Project Provider■■

LabVIEW Scripting■■

Menus and Palettes■■

Source Code Control ■■

(SCC) Plug-Ins

Take the Next StepIf you have a toolkit idea or want to learn more, here are two easy ways to get started:

1. Check out the LabVIEW add-on developer’s guide – Begin exploring technical resources to get you started and to read more in-depth information on the process.

2. Join the LabVIEW add-on developer network through the NI community – Connect with other LabVIEW users who build toolkits, or post questions for LabVIEW R&D and NI applications engineers.

– Jeff Meisel jeff.meisel@ni.com Jeff Meisel is a product manager for LabVIEW add-on programs at National Instruments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Kansas State University.

To join the LabVIEW add-on developer network through the NI community, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9228.

Hardware Services

Software Services

Environment

Toolkit

Connectivity

LabVIEW

Figure 2. There are many NI technologies for building an add-on.

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The Future of Instrument Control – The Software Is Still the Instrument The future of instrument control remains a hot topic in test and measurement. With so much investment tied up in test equipment and software, engineers and management teams alike are looking for reassurance that they have satisfied their testing needs for the present and the future. With this in mind, National Instruments is providing guidance on the future of instrument control. This article is a short excerpt of the complete, online article. Engineers are aware they may soon need to upgrade to Windows Vista or the impending release of Windows 7. The software development tool they choose will determine how their systems are affected. As the cross-platform Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA) standard layer takes care of the hardware interaction and the low-level OS communication, these engineers should choose an application development environment (ADE) that seamlessly integrates with a regularly updated implementation of VISA.

NI develops NI-VISA alongside test-and-measurement-focused ADEs such as NI LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI, and Measurement Studio to ensure compatibility and ease of use for engineers, regardless of the programming languages they choose. With planned annual releases, these ADEs will support new OSs and technologies. Many application-centric or instrument-specific software tools have come and gone, but LabVIEW and ANSI C remain popular choices among test engineers after more than 20 years of use.

Future Trends for Instrument Control SoftwareLess dependence on specific hardware –■■ Software will continue to abstract the hardware away from the test logic with user-defined hardware abstraction layers building on the existing abstraction provided by VISA, IVI, and plug-and-play instrument drivers.

Continued importance of future-proof instrument drivers■■ – A LabVIEW instrument driver created in 1995 still works today, unmodified, even when used with new bus technologies and within different OSs. The NI Instrument Driver Network (ni.com/idnet) houses more than 7,500 instrument drivers with hundreds more added each year by NI, third-party vendors, and end users.

Debugging tools that simplify hybrid systems■■ – Using a mix of equipment can yield cost-effective, high-performance test systems that are difficult to set up. Tools such as NI Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) and NI Spy make debugging distributed, multivendor systems much easier.

No matter which new technologies emerge in the coming years, engineers can be sure that National Instruments will continue to provide the instrument control software necessary to take advantage of technological advances while preserving the investment in existing hardware and software. In the future, as in the past, one thing remains true – the software is the instrument.

To learn how NI software can help you control your instruments, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9230.

Instrument Drivers

The mark LabWindows is used under a license from Microsoft Corporation. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Figure 2. NI Spy is a powerful debugging tool that simplifies debugging hybrid systems.

Figure 1. NI invests in preserving backward compatibility with future technologies, as shown with a LabVIEW instrument control demonstration running on a beta installation

of the upcoming Microsoft OS, Windows 7.

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NI Labs Includes Pioneer Release of C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA

Web Connections

The pioneer release of C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA is available on NI Labs (ni.com/labs), the National Instruments virtual research lab. The C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA makes it easier for C/C++ developers to take advantage of LabVIEW FPGA and NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) hardware, such as NI CompactRIO, NI FlexRIO, and NI R Series FPGA I/O, for embedded control and acquisition applications. With the new C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA, developers can use NI LabVIEW graphical tools to program the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) within NI hardware and choose either LabVIEW or C/C++ tools to program the processor within the system. This new LabVIEW FPGA feature offers engineers and scientists with C expertise the ability to take advantage of FPGAs within their designs without the burden of learning hardware design while giving them the option to reuse their embedded C code. With the new C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA, engineers and scientists can program the real-time processor on NI FPGA-based hardware using C tools such as NI LabWindows™/CVI, Microsoft Visual Studio, or Wind River Workbench and interface to the LabVIEW FPGA code running on the FPGA. Developers also can program the processor using the LabVIEW Real-Time Module, which includes tools for low-level system debugging and precision execution timing for increased flexibility and functionality of deterministic real-time applications. The current pioneer release of the C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA includes nearly all the same functionality as the LabVIEW host interface, including the ability to read and write FPGA front panel controls, target-to-host and host-to-target DMA streaming, and IRQ assertion and acknowledgement. Periodic development updates to the C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA on NI Labs will be available on ni.com until this feature graduates into a released product.

NI Labs showcases the latest evolving technologies that are not quite ready for release directly from the National Instruments R&D department. The virtual research lab offers developers the chance to download and work with cutting-edge tools and offer product feedback early in the design cycle. Previous NI Labs program graduates include the LabVIEW Adaptive Filter Toolkit and the Fixed-Point Math Library for LabVIEW FPGA. Each NI Labs technology is bundled into a self-contained installer with documentation and examples. Developers can interact directly with the specific R&D team responsible for a pioneering technology through dedicated online forums.

To download, evaluate, and discuss the pioneer C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA from NI Labs, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9231.

Download more than 1,000 example VIs. 1.

Read NI LabVIEW software blogs written by NI R&D engineers.2.

Join more than 50 online LabVIEW user groups. 3.

Find a new job in the LabVIEW Career Network. 4.

Provide product feedback via polls and NI Labs.5.

To find out more about staying connected, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9232.

Top Five Ways to Stay Connected at ni.com/community

+ +

Custom I/O

Comm Protocols

Digital I/O

Analog I/O

FPGAProcessor

High-Speed PCI Bus

LabVIEW

LabVIEWor

C

C/C++ developers can now easily interface to NI FPGA-based hardware using the new C Interface to LabVIEW FPGA.

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NASA Tests James Webb Telescope with LabVIEW FPGA

Case Studies

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the next large telescope NASA will use for observing thousands of distant galaxies to research initial galaxy formations in the universe. To measure numerous faint objects, the instrument must simultaneously observe a large number of objects in previously unknown positions. To do this, NASA developed the microshutter array, a 171 by 365 matrix of 100 by 200 µm shutters that open under random access control and simultaneously target more than 100 faint objects. The microshutters must function reliably for up to 100,000 cycles on different shutter designs, and the control system needs to latch or release each of the 365 columns of the shutter array at the exact moment the magnet passes. In other words, consider each column of the shutter array as a 1 in. wide slat in a picket fence that is 30 ft long. The magnet is like a jet plane moving past the shutter at more than 700 mph only 3 ft away. To control the shutters, we have to communicate with the control electronics and custom high-voltage shift registers. The new system also needs to rapidly communicate and provide utilities to test and verify many operations of the support electronics. The system must be fail-safe and meet all of these requirements because the tests open and close the shutters 240 times per minute for days at a time. If the system loses synchronization, the shutters can quickly become damaged. To meet these requirements, NASA selected a PXI-7813R reconfigurable I/O module and the LabVIEW FPGA Module to perform shutter control, which saved hundreds of man-hours and thousands of dollars over developing a custom chip. In addition to reducing costs, we can inexpensively modify the control algorithm to improve testing, explore shutter issues, and advance microshutter array development.

– Eric Lyness, Mink Hollow Systems, and David Rapchun and Knute Ray, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

To read about 10 essential technologies for high-performance motion control, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9233.

THE CHALLENGE

Synchronizing the motion of a magnet moving more than 1 m/s with the opening and closing of tens of thousands of hair-sized microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microshutters.

THE SOLUTION

Using the NI LabVIEW FPGA Module and an NI PXI-7813R reconfigurable I/O module to precisely and deterministically pinpoint the position of the magnet and the proper outputs to control the MEMS microshutters in perfect synchronization.

A fully functional one-sixth scale model displays the JWST mirror in an optics test bed.

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Case Studies

Optimizing Solar Panel ProductionThe Challenge

Optimizing each stage of the solar panel production and installation process from silicon purification to final installation and monitoring.

The SoluTion

Using NI hardware and software to increase efficiency throughout the solar panel production process, from purifying silicon ore to manufacturing and testing the final product.

Sunlight is the most plentiful natural resource. Because the sun is not subject to the same supply limitations as fossil fuels and it is available nearly everywhere, it is being used as a free, clean source of renewable energy. Our engineers at Siliken Renewable Energy work to help harness this abundant resource and address escalating environmental and energy concerns. Siliken differs from other photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturers because we handle all aspects of solar cell development from silicon purification to panel manufacturing and verification. NI products play an important role in our research and development to innovate and produce new technologies and to test every solar panel we produce. To purify the silicon for our PV cells, we use a novel purification process that is approximately 40 percent cheaper than traditional methods. To further increase efficiency, we incorporated the NI PXI platform, the LabVIEW FPGA Module, and sound and vibration and vision software into our standard control equipment. With this highly integrated NI LabVIEW and PXI platform, we can conduct separate critical tasks during purification using a unified solution. After we put the PV cells in the panels, we use a PC-based system running LabVIEW and an NI PCI-6220 M Series data acquisition (DAQ) board to “close” the solar modules. We assemble the solar panels and perform I-V characterization tests to verify the power output of every module to ensure each one produces the stated power. Using NI CompactRIO, LabVIEW FPGA, and an NI PCI-6122 S Series multifunction DAQ board, we can perform these tests with greater accuracy and significantly increase our throughput. As a result,

we were recognized for providing the best advertised-to-actual performance ratio for panel output. Additionally, we are researching other renewable energies, such as hydrogen fuel cells and wind power using CompactRIO and NI CompactDAQ, because these platforms offer compelling operational advantages and shorter development times than other traditional control and test tools.

– Alberto Cortés and Ricardo Silla, Siliken Renewable Energy

To view a video of Siliken’s applications and learn more about its development process, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9234.

Siliken Renewable Energy is one of the world’s fastest-growing manufacturers of solar panels.

Do you want to see images and video of other interesting applications? Check out cool new projects and sweet applications the NI community is working on through the NI Sweet Apps Blog.

To access the blog, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9235.

Connect to the Sweet Apps Blog

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LabVIEW Community Extends Support of New ProtocolsAs engineers take NI LabVIEW software into new domains, a key area of success for third parties creating LabVIEW toolkits is in the development of intellectual property (IP) that adds new communication protocols to LabVIEW. Engineers can apply their expertise in a vertical industry or within an emerging technology area and provide that to other LabVIEW developers.

What Is a Protocol?A protocol is a software communication mechanism used to interface between two or more devices. A number of characteristics can be defined within a protocol:

Timing information■■

Data characteristics■■

Deterministic versus nondeterministic behavior■■

LabVIEW includes many of the more common protocols, such as GPIB, serial, and USB, within the functions palettes. However, due to the vast breadth of protocols and complexity involved with each one, it is impossible to include all the protocols within the LabVIEW product. Luckily, third parties who specialize in different domains are filling in the gaps and providing these protocols to other LabVIEW developers. This article focuses on three types of protocols: analog, digital, and software.

Analog ProtocolsFor RF and communications test applications, protocols make the difference between being able to test the latest-generation designs versus being left behind. ZigBee, WiMAX, and LTE are three such protocols.

Digital ProtocolsFor designs that use LabVIEW FPGA technology, engineers can easily implement digital protocols, such as I2C and SPI, on the fabric of the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to twiddle the digital I/O pins on the chip.

Software ProtocolsOne example of a software protocol is the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS). EPICS is a software architecture for building distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes, and other large experiments. For example, Cosylab developed an EPICS IO client for NI hardware platforms including CompactRIO and PXI.

To view technical resources on developing protocol with LabVIEW or to deliver your protocol to the LabVIEW masses, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9236.

Product Network

0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 11 111 0 1 0 1 0 10 1 0 11 00Ethernet LayerMiddleware.NET

Software

I2CSPIS/PDIF

Digital

ZigBeeWiMAXLTE

Analog

Protocols

LabVIEW

1. PDF Toolkit – Carya

2. CUDA Plug-In for Personal Supercomputing – NVIDIA

3. UI Custom Controls Suite – National Instruments

4. Aerospace Toolkit – Advanced Technology Associates

5. Zbrain – Schmidt Engineering

To learn more about these and other LabVIEW add-ons, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9237.

Five LabVIEW Add-Ons in the Spotlight

Engineers can use a protocol to interface between two or more devices.

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Since 2004, National Instruments and other leading test and measurement companies have hosted the Automated Test Summit, an online series of technical sessions focused on best practices in automated test. Due to the growing demand for free industry training on how to optimize the value and performance of automated test systems, at this year’s summit, more than 15 test and measurement companies will present practical techniques to reduce the cost of test by applying proven methods from the top trends in automated test.

They will focus on the use of those methods in five key application areas: aerospace and defense, RF and wireless, audio and video, automotive, and semiconductor test. View the 2009 Virtual Automated Test Summit live online on May 20 and get immediate access to all presentations and technical resources.

To view the agenda and log into the event, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9239.

The National Instruments RF and Communications Technology Forum is a free, half-day seminar led by industry experts in the RF, wireless, and communications fields. Learn about the latest advances in RF with technical sessions that explore which tools engineers are using to design, develop, and test emerging RF and wireless communications products in the rapidly growing and changing market. The forum includes a keynote discussing the industry trends driving new requirements in wireless device design and test and focuses on what these trends mean to companies in this space. During the event, explore the wireless and communications

trends driving today’s products and test requirements and discover the latest strategies for RF test system development to minimize

costs and increase flexibility. Examples of RF application areas covered include RFID, WCDMA, WiMAX, ZigBee, IEEE 802.11, MIMO, and GPS. The forum runs through June in 15 U.S. and Canadian cities.

To access more information on the National Instruments RF and Communications Technology Forum, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9238.

Learn about the latest advances in RF with technical sessions and a keynote on new requirements in wireless

device design and test.

Events

View live keynotes and on-demand technical sessions, network with fellow engineers, download technical resources, and discuss

your application needs – all from your own desk.

National Instruments RF and Communications Technology Forum

NIWeek 2009, the 15th annual worldwide graphical system design conference, is the ultimate event to receive in-depth technical training on NI product advancements and trends within the test, control, and design marketplace. The conference runs August 4–6, 2009, in Austin, Texas.

To secure early-bird registration and volume discount pricing, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9240.

NIWeek 2009 Early-Bird Registration Ends May 31

Attend the 2009 Virtual Automated Test Summit, Now Online

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Technology Outlook

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View recent newsletters in PDF format, newsletter archives, and other resources, or ■■

subscribe to the semimonthly NI e-mail newsletter, NI News, at ni.com/newsletter.

For inquiries, subscription changes, requests for permission, or changes of address, ■■

e-mail the managing editor at newsletter@ni.com.

Newsletter Information and Resources

Since the introduction of laptops more than two decades ago, PC manufacturers have made great progress toward reducing the size of computing devices by shrinking the standard laptop and introducing new platforms. However, many of the initial attempts at ultramobile computing had either unusable battery life or crippling features such as underpowered processors and difficult-to-use interfaces, thus limiting their adoption. A new class of highly portable computers dubbed as “netbooks” overcome many of these shortcomings; and at prices starting at less than $400 USD, they are the fastest- growing segment of the PC industry. Most netbooks offer an 8 to 10 in. widescreen, an Intel Atom x86 processor, a Windows XP or Linux® OS, wireless networking, and USB connectivity – all in one small package.

The new Atom processor provides respectable computing capabilities for its low power; consumes less than 2.5 W, compared to the typical Intel Core Duo notebook processor requiring up to 30 W; and is tailored for casual computing needs such as Web browsing and word processing. Although not designed for processor-intensive computing such as 3D animation or video editing, netbooks can often meet the needs of

many data acquisition applications such as data logging, simple signal analysis, and portable measurements. They can reduce the total cost of a measurement system and offer a small and highly mobile form factor when paired with a bus-powered USB data acquisition device.

To view performance benchmarks and considerations for a netbook-based measurement system, visit ni.com/info and enter nsi9241.

Netbooks: Compact, Low-Cost Computing

Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

Netbooks can lower the overall cost of a measurement system while delivering a highly mobile computing platform for virtual instrumentation.

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