NI extends software-designed instrumentation for electronic test

Charles Schroeder, NI Director of Test Systems, says: "As devices under test increase in complexity, engineers need new strategies to remain competitive and meet time to market deadlines while reducing cost. The platform-based approach of the LabVIEW RIO architecture offers engineers the flexible, scalable tools they need for success."

The most significant platform updates are new instrument driver FPGA extensions, a feature of the NI RF signal analyser and RF signal generator instrument drivers that combine the flexibility of the open FPGA with the compatibility engineers expect from an industry-standard instrument driver. FPGA extensions build on the release of the world's first software-designed instrument, the NI PXIe-5644R vector signal transceiver announced at NIWeek 2012. The extensions make it even easier for those with little to no FPGA programming experience to access the benefits of an open FPGA to better meet application demands with additional processing and control. Engineers already using vector signal transceivers can upgrade their drivers then mix application-specific FPGA code with standard instrument driver code.

Gorkem Guven, Vice President at Hittite Microwave Corporation, says: "The user-programmable FPGA on the NI vector signal transceiver is absolutely essential for addressing the challenges associated with testing the latest highly-integrated RF components. With instrument driver FPGA extensions and the LabVIEW programming experience, we can easily take advantage of the FPGA to dramatically decrease our test times while preserving all of the hardware and software functionality we expect from our RF test equipment."

Another addition to the LabVIEW RIO architecture is the NI PXIe-7975R NI FlexRIO FPGA module, which offers the Xilinx 7 Series FPGA technology for automated test and high-performance embedded applications. The new NI FlexRIO FPGA module doubles the data streaming bandwidth to 1.6GB/s and quadruples the on-board DRAM to 2GB when compared with current FPGA modules. Two new NI FlexRIO adapter modules, the 4.4GHz NI 5792 receiver and NI 5793 RF transmitter, are also available.

To address greater processing requirements for floating-point math, NI improves the CPU capability of the LabVIEW RIO architecture with the new NI PXIe-8383mc PXImc adapter module. With NI PXImc technology, engineers can spread floating-point processing across multiple CPUs in the system the same way fixed-point processing deploys across multiple FPGAs.

For further information about NI LabVIEW reconfigurable I/O (RIO) architecture, please go to www.ni.com.