LabVIEW can now also program FPGAs
7 May 2003
Programmable Logic
National Instruments' LabVIEW FPGA Pioneer, is an integrated development system that extends the company's widely used graphical development environment to field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Measurement and control engineers now can use LabVIEW to create custom applications that run on NI FPGA-based reconfigurable I/O hardware.
"The LabVIEW FPGA Pioneer System brings an unprecedented level of timing, control, and synchronisation to measurement and control applications," said Ray Almgren, NI vice president of product strategy. "We have extended LabVIEW capabilities for more demanding embedded, realtime, and distributed applications. With this system, engineers can easily implement systems that are difficult or impossible to create with existing tools."
Until now, the extensive knowledge required to program FPGA chips with VHDL or other complex design tools has inhibited widespread adoption of FPGA technology by measurement and control engineers. These engineers now can use the familiar dataflow model and inherent parallelism of LabVIEW to quickly develop and download custom applications to NI reconfigurable hardware. This dramatically simplifies hardware configuration and reduces overall development time.
Just as LabVIEW revolutionised instrumentation with user-defined instruments, this system enables engineers to define their own chip-level hardware for a wide spectrum of measurement and control applications. By defining I/O and measurement functionality with LabVIEW and running applications in hardware, engineers can make custom measurements and take advantage of on-board processing. For example, they can easily build custom discrete and analog control applications for manufacturing and scientific research such as dynamometer or motor speed control, simulation applications for development of electronic control units (ECUs) common to vehicles and household appliances, and other sophisticated applications that require tight timing and control.
The LabVIEW FPGA Pioneer System is a complete PXI system that includes the new LabVIEW FPGA Module and the first NI reconfigurable I/O product, PXI-7831R. Engineers use the FPGA software module to configure the functionality of the PXI-7831R board for performing tasks such as the implementation of custom digital protocols and onboard decision making. They can control each board's analog and digital lines independently or synchronise them with other lines. They also can configure the digital I/O lines as custom counter/timers, pulse width modulated (PWM) channels, or flexible encoder inputs.
Further reading:
Solving industry 4.0 challenges with software-configurable I/O
Altron Arrow
Programmable Logic
Software-configurable I/O modules solve problems caused by connecting legacy equipment to modern Ethernet controllers by allowing for the efficient use of all channels in an I/O system.
Read more...
Rapid prototyping with new Xilinx FPGA evaluation kit
EBV Electrolink
Programmable Logic
Equipped with the Xilinx Spartan-7 FPGA, the kit is built for rapid prototyping of industrial networking, embedded vision and automotive designs.
Read more...
Embedded vision development tool for RISC-V FPGA
EBV Electrolink
Programmable Logic
Microchip Technology announced the second development tool offering in its Smart Embedded Vision initiative for designers using its PolarFire RISC-V system-on-chip (SoC) FPGA. The industry’s lowest-power
...
Read more...
Latest updates to Libero SoC v2021.3 Design Suite
Altron Arrow
Programmable Logic
Microchip Technology recently introduced new MPFS025T/095T/160T/250T PolarFire SoC devices with Tgrade2 operating conditions in standard and -1 speed grades and MPFS095TS/250TS/460TS devices with MIL
...
Read more...
HLS tool suite for PolarFire FPGAs
EBV Electrolink
Programmable Logic
The need to combine performance with low power consumption in edge compute applications has driven demand for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to be used as power-efficient accelerators while also
...
Read more...
Mid-range FPGAs for edge compute systems
Avnet Silica
Programmable Logic
Edge compute systems need compact programmable devices with low power consumption and a small enough thermal footprint to eliminate fans and other heat mitigation while providing robust compute horsepower.
...
Read more...
Microchip achieves JEDEC qualification for rad-tolerant FPGA
Future Electronics
Programmable Logic
Developers of small-satellite constellations and other systems used in ‘New Space’ missions must deliver both high reliability and radiation protection while meeting stringent cost and scheduling requirements.
...
Read more...
Intel Agilex FPGAs deliver flexibility and agility for the data-centric world
Altron Arrow
Editor's Choice Programmable Logic
The Agilex FPGA fabric and innovative chiplet architecture delivers an extensible FPGA platform that scales across a wide range of device densities and brings key features and benefits to the table.
Read more...
Security tool for mission-critical FPGAs
Future Electronics
Programmable Logic
Mission-critical and other high-assurance systems deployed worldwide are under rapidly evolving threats from cybercriminals who attempt to extract Critical Program Information (CPI) via the FPGAs that
...
Read more...
Lattice releases new version of sensAI
Future Electronics
Programmable Logic Design Automation
New enhancements have been made to Lattice Semiconductor’s award-winning sensAI solution stack for accelerating AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) application development on low-power Lattice
...
Read more...
printer friendly version