The Internet of Things, 5G and Industrie 4.0 and the smart grid are all on the agenda for National Instruments UK & Ireland NIDays 2014, the annual Graphical System Design Conference for engineers, scientists and educators.  The event will be staged at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London on Tuesday November 4.

NI InsightCM Enterprise is a new software solution that helps companies gain insight into the health of their capital equipment for machine maintenance and operations. It is NI’s first end-to-end software solution that addresses Big Analogue Data challenges and builds on the industrial Internet of Things.

NI’s CompactRIO software-designed controller uses the latest embedded technologies from Intel and Xilinx and is fully supported by LabVIEW 2014 and NI Linux Real-Time. It is ideal for advanced control and applications in harsh, industrial environments and provides high-performance processing, custom timing and triggering, and data transfer from modular C Series I/O.

PXI-based automated test systems that reduce test cost for RF and mixed-signal devices by opening access to NI- and industry-offered PXI modules in semiconductor production test environments have been unveiled at NIWeek. The Semiconductor Test Series (STS) can increase throughput and perform both characterisation and production with the same hardware and software tools. This decreases data correlation time and time to market.

NI has unveiled a next generation CompactDAQ 4-slot controller. By integrating the processor, signal conditioning and I/O into a single CompactDAQ system, engineers and scientists get reduced overall system cost and complexity and inreased measurement accuracy, says NI. Integrated measurement systems reduce the number of components, connections and wiring needed, where noise and additional costs are often introduced, to ensure high-accuracy measu...

NI has unleashed a new wave of software designed instrumentation encompassing new instrument types and automated test applications, further freeing, says the company, engineers and organisations from the costs and limitations of vendor-defined instruments. These latest software-designed instruments address automated test and research applications across wireless and mobile devices, semiconductor, automotive and aerospace/defence industries.

The month of August always sees National Instruments usher in the latest version of its LabView systems design software. LabVIEW 2014 standardises the way users interact with hardware through reuse of the same code and engineering processes across systems, which scales applications for the future. This saves time and money as technology advances, requirements evolve and time-to-market pressure increases.

NI has released V11.01 of the NI AWR Design Environment with enhancements to Analyst 3D finite element method (FEM) EM simulation engine that cuts simulation times by as much as 70 percent over previous versions. The updates in V11.01, which are specific to Analyst, include algorithm reformulations/enhancements to both automatic mesh refinement (AMR) and fast frequency sweeps.

The NI SOM (System on Module) combines the Xilinx Zynq All Programmable system on a chip (SoC) with supporting components such as memory on a small PCB and features a complete middleware solution and ready-to-go Linux-based real-time operating system (RTOS) already integrated. It gives design teams the customisability of a SOM without the increased time and risk of developing custom software.

Students, hobbyists and engineers can use the new National Instruments Multisim Touch app for iPad to design and simulate circuits using high-fidelity SPICE simulation results identical to the desktop. The fully interactive Multisim Touch is a new addition to the world-class Multisim simulation solution that extends powerful circuit analysis tools to the iPad so users can quickly prove new ideas, design when inspired or complete homework assignme...

NI has moved into the all-in one instrument market place. It has launched VirtualBench, an instrument that integrates a mixed-signal oscilloscope, function generator, digital multimeter, programmable DC power supply and digital I/O. Users interact with VirtualBench through software applications that run on PCs or iPads.

Jeff Kodosky, NI Co-founder and the Father of LabVIEW will kick off National Instruments’ Summer of LabVIEW webcast series with a keynote addressing the overarching philosophy of LabVIEW, the core principles that have driven its development and which principles will continue to drive the vision for graphical system design.

National Instruments and Nokia’s Networks business have forged a partnership to collaborate on advanced research related to fifth generation (5G) wireless technologies such as exploring peak data rates and cell-edge rates in excess of 10 Gbps and 100 Mbps, respectively.

Industry experts will present on the latest measurement technologies for the oil & gas and renewable industries at the NI Offshore Measurement Summit 2014. The event will be staged at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen on July 1. It will focus on rapid development with reconfigurable off-the-shelf platforms to gain a competitive advantage by focusing on IP development, productivity and reducing time-to-market.

National Instruments UK & Ireland will host industry experts and test professionals at the Automated Test Summit 2014 on June 19 at the Madejski Stadium, Reading. This free, one day event will allow delegates to learn about the top trends and technologies influencing automated test through informative presentations, technical discussions and ten hours of hands-on training.

National Instruments has added the capability to use LabVIEW system design software to program the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robotics platform. The LabVIEW Module for LEGOMINDSTORMS, a free download, is available for education and retail. The software helps students, engineers and hobbyists alike create programs that communicate with and control the EV3 brick with LabVIEW.

A three-year research project, completed by the Rugby Science Group at Bath University and funded by the International Rugby Board (IRB), has contributed to recent changes in the law of scrummaging, with a new ‘crouch, bind, set' engagement sequence. Data collected from cameras, player mounted pressure sensors and accelerometers, using National Instruments CompactRIO, show that this new engagement sequence reduces initial scrum forces by 25...

National Instruments NI PXIe-4139 system source measure unit (SMU) is a high-performance addition to the company’s SMU portfolio. This SMU can reduce overall cost of test and accelerate time to market for test engineers in a broad range of industries, from semiconductor to automotive and consumer electronics.

The National Instruments LabVIEW Developer Tour offers engineers and scientists the opportunity to learn programming skills from a range of technical sessions, product demonstrations and hands-on sessions, aimed at both the new and experienced user. With the choice of two tracks, delegates can tailor the day to suit their individual needs and experience.

National Instruments’ NI PXIe-5646R vector signal transceiver has 200 MHz of RF bandwidth, making it ideal for testing the latest wireless standards such as IEEE 802.11ac, 160 MHz WLAN and LTE Advanced. Engineers can use the open software design of the vector signal transceiver to develop channel emulation systems, radio prototyping, custom real-time signal processing for spectrum analysis and many other applications.