Take a closer look at virtual instrumentation at Mtec 2008

For more than 30 years, NI has pioneered virtual instrumentation - a concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists in industry, government and academia approach measurement and automation. Leveraging PCs and commercial technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs for test, control and design applications through easy-to-integrate software, such as NI LabVIEW, and modular measurement and control hardware for PXI, PXI Express, PCI, PCI Express, USB and Ethernet.

At Mtec 2008 NI will demonstrate the latest innovations in virtual instrumentation and graphical system design.

LabVIEW 8.5

LabVIEW 8.5 provides new features that enable users to benefit from advances in multicore processor technology.

• Achieve reliable, real-time performance on multicore processors. LabVIEW real-time application performance can be enhanced thanks to full support for multicore processors. Time-critical tasks can be assigned to specific processor cores for increased determinism.
• New improvements to textual maths in LabVIEW enable users to further combine graphical and textual maths.
• A new LabVIEW Statechart Module simplifies complex applications involving state machines and event-based systems. LabVIEW statechart code can be deployed to multiple targets, such as desktop PCs, LabVIEW Real-Time controllers and FPGA-based systems.
• LabVIEW can be connected to thousands of third-party industrial devices, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), by means of new NI OPC servers.

Data acquisition

National Instruments is a market leader in PC-based data acquisition and offers a complete family of data acquisition devices for desktop, portable, industrial and embedded applications on many buses, including PCI, PCI Express, PXI, PXI Express, USB and Ethernet, and on many operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Pocket PC/Windows CE and Real-Time OSs. At Mtec NI will showcase the latest innovations in USB data acquisition, including new low-cost USB scope and DMM products.

Machine vision

Mtec (which is colocated with IPOT and the Machine Building shows) will be the UK trade show debut for the NI Smart Camera family. Launched in November 2007, the NI 1722 and NI 1742 Smart Cameras are high-performance, low-cost devices that combine an industrial controller with an image sensor and integrate with NI vision software to offer image processing directly on the camera, making them suitable for applications such as locating parts, inspecting packaging, verifying assembly and reading 1D and 2D codes. The new cameras are shipped with National Instruments Vision Builder for Automated Inspection, an interactive software environment for configuring, benchmarking and deploying machine vision applications without programming. The NI Smart Camera family also features integration with NI LabVIEW and complements the existing range of NI frame grabbers, embedded Compact Vision Systems and vision software.

Find out more about all of the above by visiting NI at MTtec 2008, stand 1408, or use the form on this page.