Latest from NI Streamlines Distributed Application Development

“The LabWindows/CVI 8.1 Real-Time Module gives engineers the technology to quickly and seamlessly communicate with distributed real-time and Windows applications, decreasing the amount of code a developer must rewrite to run pre-existing applications in a real-time environment,” said John Pasquarette, Director of Software Marketing at National Instruments. “LabWindows/CVI Real-Time also delivers tight integration with the LabWindows/CVI development environment and National Instruments hardware, providing engineers with a single toolchain for creating real-time server applications and Windows client applications.”

The network variable technology, introduced in LabWindows/CVI 8.1, gives engineers a simplified interface for communicating with applications written in LabWindows/CVI, National Instruments LabVIEW, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and C#. Using network variables and the LabWindows/CVI Real-Time Module, engineers can now publish and share live measurement data between test systems located on the factory floor and remote supervisory machines without the complexity of low-level TCP programming. Engineers can also use the network variable to communicate between LabWindows/CVI Real-Time and NI LabVIEW Real-Time targets.

A new high-resolution timing engine in the LabWindows/CVI 8.1 Real-Time Module helps engineers perform the accurate timing required for event response applications. With the new timing engine, engineers can now achieve submillisecond loop rates with microsecond software jitter using PXI hardware, which is ideal for applications that require precise timing and determinism such as motion control and event response.

LabWindows/CVI Real-Time also introduces usability enhancements such as the real-time project template to reduce the initial setup and configuration of a new real-time application. In addition, engineers can use LabWindows/CVI Real-Time to remotely reboot a real-time target from the supervisory machine, giving them even greater programmatic control of their distributed applications.

LabWindows/CVI Real-Time also takes advantage of the Technical Data Management (TDM) Streaming library introduced in LabWindows/CVI 8.1. The TDM Streaming library streams real-time test and measurement data to disk quickly without affecting the determinism of time-critical applications. In addition, engineers can use the TDM Streaming library to efficiently store and describe measurement data, making it easy for them to perform quick offline analysis of their real-time applications.