LabView 2010, VNA, data-acquisition, and I/O products debut at NIWeek
Rick Nelson, Editor-in-Chief -- EDN, September 9, 2010
During last month’s
NIWeek, in Austin, TX,
National Instruments
introduced LabView 2010,
a 6-GHz VNA (vector-network
analyzer), data-acquisition
modules, and a RIO
(reconfigurable-I/O) chassis.
LabView 2010 features
a rewritten compiler that
increases execution speed
by an average of 20%,
according to the company,
with execution of some
functions, such as parallel
for loops, occurring nearly
200% faster. With LabView
2010, NI has improved the
compiler data flow’s intermediate
representation and
added the low-level virtualmachine
open-source compiler
infrastructure to the
software’s compiler flow to
accelerate code execution.NI’s new 6-GHz, two-port NI PXIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express Extensions for Instrumentation)-5630 VNA module targets automated design validation and production test. Its two-slot PXI footprint enables test engineers to incorporate vector-network analysis into their test systems without the added cost and large footprint of traditional bench-top VNAs.
The PXIe-5630 features automatic precision calibration, full vector analysis on both ports, reference-plane extensions, and a LabView API (application-programming interface) that supports parallel test. The VNA features a frequency range of 10 MHz to 6 GHz, a dynamic range of greater than 110 dB, and sweep speeds of less than 400 μsec/point over 3201 points. Engineers can combine as many as eight modules in one PXI chassis and perform multisite RF test. The base price for the VNA is $25,999.
NI also introduced the Ethernet-based NI CompactDAQ modular data-acquisition system, which includes new cDAQ-9188 chassis that hold eight I/O modules for measuring as many as 256 channels of electrical, physical, mechanical, or acoustic signals in a rugged, 25×9×9-cm form factor. The base price for the chassis is $1399. For USB (Universal Serial Bus) applications, NI X Series multifunction data-acquisition devices integrate high-performance analog measurement and control channels, digital I/O, and counter/timers. USB X Series data-acquisition devices include as many as 32 analog inputs, four analog outputs, 48 digital I/O lines, and four counters. The devices’ sampling rates range from 500k samples/sec multiplexed for analog inputs to 2M samples/ sec/channel for simultaneously sampling analog inputs. The base price is $1149.
The new 9157 and 9159 MXIe (Multiplatform Extensions for Instrumentation Express) RIO chassis and 9148 Ethernet-RIO chassis complement the NI 9144 EtherCAT (Ethernet-control-automation-technology) chassis. New C Series products extend the company’s offering of high-channel-count chassis to a variety of buses. The base prices for MXIe RIO and Ethernet RIO chassis are $4499 and $999, respectively.
National Instruments
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