National Instruments Announces 20th Anniversary Edition Of LabVIEW

Austin, TX -- National Instruments announced NI LabVIEW 8.20, the 20th anniversary edition of the LabVIEW graphical system design platform for test, control and embedded system development. The LabVIEW anniversary edition introduces new features including general compatibility with The MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB software, new FPGA-based custom hardware design wizards for building industrial controllers and updates to the NI Modulation Toolkit for LabVIEW so engineers can develop models to simulate communications systems and evaluate parameter and design decisions.

LabVIEW 8.20 delivers an open design platform that embraces multiple design tools and uses custom measurement capabilities to streamline product development. With LabVIEW 8.20, engineers can:

• Use MathScript to integrate m-file scripts they created using the MATLAB development environment
  
• Create custom data acquisition devices with the new LabVIEW FPGA Wizard
  
• Integrate third-party plant models from Dynasim and Plexim GmbH with the LabVIEW Simulation Module, a tool for designing and implementing control simulation models

LabVIEW 8.20 enhances the industrial measurement capabilities of LabVIEW with new features designed for advanced analysis and control, distributed system management and new targets for HMIs. With the LabVIEW anniversary edition, engineers can:

• Add Windows CE-based HMIs to measurement and control systems with the LabVIEW Touch Panel Module
  
• Improve execution speeds of PID algorithms by up to14 times with the LabVIEW PID Control Toolkit and execution speeds for advanced control algorithms by up to nine times with the LabVIEW Control Design Toolkit
  
• Build FPGA-based industrial measurement and control systems with the LabVIEW FPGA Wizard
  
• Create more than 2,000 shared variables or tags at a time to access I/O with the LabVIEW Datalogging and Supervisory Control (DSC) Module

LabVIEW 8.20 extends the LabVIEW platform with advanced test tools, including ones for RF and communications design, simulation and test, which engineers can use to more intuitively design models and develop measurement applications. With LabVIEW 8.20, engineers can:

• Use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) examples for Wi-Fi and 4G cellular applications with the NI Modulation Toolkit
  
• Prototype communications systems with the intermediate frequency reconfigurable I/O (IF-RIO) device
  
• Design and maintain large test systems with new object-oriented programming tools
  
• Create advanced user interfaces with OpenGL-based 3-D visualization
  
• Automatically generate interfaces for .NET Web services and DLLs with new wizards

LabVIEW 8.20 is available on Windows, Macintosh OS X and Linux operating systems. The English language version of LabVIEW 8.20 launches in August 2006, and all other versions, with the exception of simplified Chinese, launch in September 2006.

SOURCE: National Instruments