NI launches LabVIEW and PXI hardware updates

This article originally appeared in the June'24 magazine issue of Electronic Specifier Design – see ES's Magazine Archives for more featured publications.

Our software-centric, modular hardware approach to test is our unique value proposition and a differentiator for our customers,” said Ritu Favre (pictured), Group President of Emerson’s Test and Measurement business. "We are excited to share our vision for harnessing the power of AI in test and measurement and to continue our commitment to innovate on our industry-leading NI products. Through our innovative, secure and expert-led approach, we will revolutionise intelligent test across the industry."

To keep a drumbeat of continual improvement in the NI technology and software roadmap, Emerson is committed to ensuring robust support for R&D efforts in core NI-brand products such as LabVIEW and TestStand, and building a comprehensive, connected workflow using complementary products within the NI LabVIEW+ Suite.

New NI product advancements unveiled at NI Connect include:

NI LabVIEW

The latest iteration of NI LabVIEW focuses on collaborative engineering workflows, integrating new features such as enhancements in diff and merge functions, version management and support for calling .NET Core Assemblies (.NET 8). NI experts demonstrated how AI could be leveraged within development tools such as LabVIEW to increase user productivity. Capabilities include automating code description and documentation – a must-have feature for the common use case of an engineer inheriting code with unclear operation. In addition, the NI team is trialling AI technology with LabVIEW and collecting registrations for a broader programme to launch soon.

NI LabVIEW 'Community Edition'

Expanding on these investments, the company announced that NI LabVIEW Community Edition, originally introduced in 2019, is now free for students. Parts of NI LabVIEW, starting with Icon Editor, will also become open source to drive greater community collaboration.

NI InstrumentStudio Professional

The company announced NI Instrument Studio Professional, which will launch in July and extend the functionality of the PXI companion software InstrumentStudio to cover a larger portion of the electronic validation workflow, including automation and measurement customisation. In strumentStudio Pro is designed to work alongside LabVIEW and TestStand and will be automatically added to LabVIEW+ suite license holders, improving the value they receive.

NI PXI hardware

Emerson continues to strengthen its NI PXI hardware portfolio, incorporating recent additions such as the NI PXIe-5633 Vector Network Analyser (VNA) add-on module, the PXIe-6571 Digital Pattern Instrument and family of new controllers built on 11th generation Intel Core processors. These efforts underscore Emerson’s commitment to enhancing its catalogue of solutions, like the NI Semiconductor Test System (STS), which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.