National Instruments Redesigns NI CompactRIO

National Instruments announced the new NI cRIO-9068 software-designed controller, which the company says is completely redesigned but maintains full NI LabVIEW and I/O compatibility with the CompactRIO platform. The controller integrates the Xilinx Zynq-7020 All Programmable system on a chip (SoC), which combines a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and Xilinx 7 Series FPGA fabric.

The new controller provides four times faster performance than previous generations, powered by a 667 MHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA, and a new Linux-based, real-time OS that provides greater flexibility for both LabVIEW Real-Time and C/C++ application developers.

Operating temperatures have been expanded to -40 degrees to 70 degrees Celsius. The consistent LabVIEW programming experience ensures both new and existing designs take full advantage of updated technology with minimal effort, the company says.

“Because so many customers have invested in CompactRIO, we took this redesign extremely seriously,” said David Fuller, vice president of applications and embedded software at National Instruments. “Our research and development teams re-examined every part of the controller’s design and made sweeping improvements while maintaining complete backward code compatibility.”

For more information, visit National Instruments.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.