NI LabWindows/CVI 8.5 Provides Flexible Multicore Programming for ANSI C Development

With real-time SMP support in LabWindows/CVI 8.5, programmers have maximum flexibility to create optimised multithreaded applications that take advantage of multicore hardware architectures. They can automatically balance tasks across multiple cores without sacrificing determinism when designing mission-critical test and embedded systems. For high-performance test applications, such as those in the wireless, high-speed digital and mixed-signal test industries, programmers can now design new production testers with increased test throughput by performing parallel operations such as data acquisition, generation and analysis on multiple processor cores in real time. In addition, they can use LabWindows/CVI to manually assign portions of code to specific processor cores to fine-tune real-time systems or isolate time-critical sections of code.

To meet the more challenging debugging and code optimisation requirements of real-time systems, programmers can use the new NI Real-Time Execution Trace Toolkit 2.0 advanced debugging tool with LabWindows/CVI to visually trace the application execution, including the tasks running on each processor core as well as the detailed timing characteristics and priorities for each thread.

“Now that LabWindows/CVI has real-time SMP support, our development team at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) can take advantage of our existing C programming expertise for developing and debugging real-time, deterministic applications,” said Alessandro Masi, an Engineer at CERN, which is developing the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most advanced particle accelerator.

LabWindows/CVI 8.5 also offers the ability to edit code while debugging. When debugging an application, programmers may have to spend time reproducing the exact hardware and software conditions required to validate application behaviour. Instead of waiting for the application to complete, they can increase efficiency by editing code while debugging.

In addition, LabWindows/CVI 8.5 includes an updated environment that features tabbed workspaces, which help programmers develop faster by confining separate windows to tabs. Also, new collapsible code regions greatly enhance code readability by providing the ability to outline and hide code.

LabWindows/CVI combines the longevity and reusability of ANSI C with engineering-specific functionality designed for instrument control, data acquisition, analysis and user interface development. For more than 20 years, programmers have used LabWindows/CVI in thousands of applications, including those in the aerospace, military and automotive industries.