From NIWeek: Citing a need to help with prototyping of complex embedded
systems, National Instruments today said
it is rolling out new features in its graphical systems design software that
will simplify the process of deploying math algorithms to real-time operating
systems.
Known as
LabView 2009, the new software will enable product developers to put text-based
math directly into an embedded system. "Without any translation, without
changing any code, engineers can deploy '.m files' to a real-time operating
system," says P.J. Tanzillo, embedded software product manager for National
Instruments. The new
feature is an update to the well-known LabView
graphical systems software, which is used by designers worldwide for the design
and prototyping of products with embedded electronic controls. The update to
LabView was rolled out at NIWeek 2009
in Austin, TX today.
By
simplifying the process of deploying math algorithms to real-time operating
systems, National Instruments says its new software can aid medical device
developers, machine builders and automotive systems designers. Medical device
designers, for example, can use text-based math to describe matrices and
vectors employed in signal analysis on a blood pressure monitor.
The new
feature could help streamline algorithm design and deployment in many embedded
systems. Up until now, text-based math tools designed on the desktop typically
needed to be re-written for use on a real-time embedded operating system. That
re-implementation process added time and complexity to the creation of products
that used filtering of time-domain and frequency-domain signals.
"When
they're working on vectors or matrices of data, a lot of engineers prefer to do
it in text-based math code," Tanzillo says. "This enables them to do that."
LabView
2009 simplifies the process by incorporating NI's MathScript RT Module, which
expands access to real-time math and eliminates the re-implementation process.
As a result, NI engineers say they can help embedded product developers reduce
time to market.
"The idea
of the LabView environment is to give engineers some tools on the desktop to
design their algorithms the way they feel most comfortable," Tanzillo says.
"Now if they want to use LabView graphical code, or the MathScript Module, or
C-code, they can. We give them ways of combining or integrating all those
approaches."
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