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NI's announces pioneer programs for two new devices based on the NI LabVIEW FPGA Module

20th November 2006

NI-Emerson

ES Admin

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National Instruments has announced pioneer programs for two new devices based on the NI LabVIEW FPGA Module, giving engineers and researchers early access to technology for digital and communications system design. Engineers can now use LabVIEW FPGA to write custom software for each device’s FPGA to prototype and test emerging standards or create custom protocols. With FPGA technology, engineers can repeatedly reconfigure hardware performance through software to meet next-generation requirements, which is a new approach to system design.

“Virtual instrumentation revolutionised the test and measurement industry,” said Dr. James Truchard, NI President and CEO. “Graphical system design now raises the bar by supporting heterogeneous multiprocessing with combinations of multicore PCs and FPGAs. The communications pioneer program provides capabilities for building high-performance RF and communications test systems, while the digital pioneer program provides capabilities for a new generation of FPGA-based digital test systems.”

The high-speed digital test pioneer device features the largest LabVIEW FPGA target to date. The product has four high-speed serial I/O lines up to 3.125 Gb/s and 24 general-purpose digital I/O lines up to 400 Mb/s. The PXI Express-based module offers a x4 connector for throughput rates up to 1 GB/s, ideal for streaming applications. The digital pioneer device extends the capabilities of the company’s current high-speed digital devices beyond 200 MHz clock rates to empower engineers to interface to DVI, HDMI, SATA, IEEE 1394 and other high-speed digital protocols requiring high throughput. The digital pioneer program includes the new high-speed digital device, a PXI Express chassis and controller, LabVIEW 8.20 Professional Edition and the LabVIEW FPGA Module.

The communications pioneer device is a PCI board with two 14-bit IF input channels at 100 MS/s and two 14-bit IF output channels at 200 MS/s. The device features a LabVIEW FPGA target, making it ideal for software-defined radio and RFID applications. Engineers and researchers can perform digital upconversion and digital downconversion in hardware to alleviate bus bandwidth requirements and perform custom pulse shaping while still leaving the FPGA free for user-defined processing. The communications pioneer program includes the new communications device, LabVIEW, the LabVIEW FPGA Module and the Modulation Toolkit for LabVIEW.

Through NI pioneer programs, engineers can preview technology before it is released to help with the design and functionality of the product. Readers can find out more about the new digital pioneer program by visiting www.ni.com/highspeeddigitalio/pioneer. Readers can learn more about the communications pioneer program by visiting www.ni.com/rf/pioneer.