NI Announces Dual-Core PXI Embedded Controller

By DE Editors

National Instruments(Austin, TX) says their new dual-core PXI embedded controller is theindustry’s first. It features the 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo processorT2500 for multitasking environments and multithreaded applications. Thedual-core PXI controller improves the performance of multithreadedapplications up to 100 percent versus single-core PXI controllers withthe same processor clock rate.

With two computing engines in one physical processor, the dual-coreprocessor can simultaneously execute two computing tasks. This is asignificant benefit in multitasking environments, such as Windows XP,that run multiple applications at one time. In addition, the dual-coreprocessor can simultaneously execute two threads, or tasks, withinmultithreaded applications, such as National Instruments LabVIEWsoftware. In NI LabVIEW, engineers can easily develop multithreadedapplications by simply using parallel data flow, for example drawing aloop around each segment of the graphical code they wish to execute ina separate thread. The dual-core processor is also ideal formulti-channel, multi-rate data-logging applications using LabVIEW andNational Instruments DIAdem software or Microsoft Excel because thedata acquisition and data storage to the hard drive can run in parallelfor optimal performance.

According to a press release, the PXI-8105 dual-core embeddedcontroller delivers the highest performance of any PXI embeddedcontroller and uses the Mobile Intel 945GM Express chipset. The chipsetalso includes the PCI Express bus to give integrated peripherals on thecontroller, such as Gigabit Ethernet, the bandwidth required to operateat a full rate while communicating with and processing data from PXImodules using the PCI bus. Another of these peripherals is anExpressCard/34 slot, which uses the PCI Express and Hi-Speed USB (2.0)serial interfaces to provide up to 2.5 Gb/s throughput in eachdirection. Other standard peripherals include four USB 2.0 ports, GPIB,serial and parallel. The new controller also features 512 MB ofdual-channel 667 MHz DDR2 memory standard, analog and digital DVI-Ivideo ,and a 60 GB serial ATA hard drive. It offers hard drive-basedrecovery that engineers can use to restore their systems back tofactory default if necessary.

The controller is ideal for a variety of applications, includingmixed-signal test in consumer electronics, RF test in communications,and octave analysis in sound and vibration. It works with all PXImodular instruments and data acquisition modules. The NI PXI-8105controller comes with Windows XP Professional preinstalled, savingengineers valuable time in software installation and configuration. Itintegrates with all National Instruments software, including the NILabVIEW graphical development environment, NI TestStand test managementsoftware, NI LabWindows/CVI for ANSI C development, and NISignalExpress interactive measurement software, in addition to othercommon development environments for automated test applications, suchas C, C++, Visual Basic, and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Price: $4,499 (to start).

In other news, National Instruments has announced it now offers more than 5,000 drivers through the NI Instrument Driver Network.With support and connectivity for the latest instruments andcommunication buses, National Instruments LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVIprovides engineers consistent, high-level programming interfaces forremotely controlling their stand-alone instruments.

The NI LabVIEW graphical development platform, NI-VISA I/O library, andLabVIEW Plug and Play instrument drivers certified by NI are all on theNI Instrument Driver Network to ensure seamless integration andconnectivity between the PC and stand-alone instrumentation, such asthe latest Ethernet/LAN, GPIB, and USB instruments. With source codeavailability and a standard programming model, LabVIEW Plug and Playinstrument drivers give users the ability to easily add instruments toa test system without learning new communication protocols orprogramming paradigms.

In addition to increasing connectivity via the Instrument DriverNetwork, NI has added instrument driver tools to LabVIEW 8 to reducedevelopment time and improve code quality. These features include theInstrument Driver Finder, which helps users instantly search anddownload drivers from the Instrument Driver Network within the LabVIEWenvironment Project-style instrument drivers that improve codemanagement and driver protection; and the Instrument Driver Wizard,which helps users automatically generate fully documented instrumentdrivers based on the industry-defined Standard Commands forProgrammable Instrumentation (SCPI) protocol, reducing instrumentdriver development time by up to 25 percent.

For more information, visit ni.com.

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