LabVIEW 8.6 to master multicore

The latest version of LabVIEW has been launched to take advantage of the latest multicore, fpga and wireless technologies. National Instruments’ LabVIEW 8.6 is the latest version of its graphical system design software platform for control, test and embedded system development. Building on the inherent parallel nature of graphical programming, LabVIEW 8.6 is said to deliver new tools to help engineers and scientists take advantage of the benefits of multicore processors, fpgas and wireless communication. “We have highlighted three distinct areas with the launch of LabVIEW 8.6,” explained director of marketing, Ian Bell. “The first is multicore processing and our continual effort of evolving LabVIEW to address the challenge of programming multicore cpus. The second is bringing fpga technology within reach of the broadest range of scientists and engineers. And finally, with much of the buzz in the communications sector concerning wireless technology, LabVIEW will become a vital interface for test and measurement devices.” To take advantage of new technologies, engineers often have to work with multiple tools that are unsuitable for parallel programming. Using the latest version of LabVIEW means they now have a single platform to increase test and control system throughput with multicore processors. Furthermore, they can reduce the development time of high performance fpga based advanced control and embedded prototyping applications, and more easily create distributed measurement systems to acquire data remotely. “We see the advent parallel computing multicore processors as an opportunity, not a challenge,” continued Bell. “For example, testing a mobile phone is just one of the many cutting edge applications driving the need for parallel systems. Here, the ability to deploy parallel and multicore processing techniques - as well as the right measurement hardware - removes massive amounts of time from the test process. The use of LabVIEW as a parallel programming language enables the testing of several capabilities of wireless devices at the same time. “The industry continues to talk about the challenge highlighted by multicore processors,” he added, “so one of the main goals for Labview 8.6 is to make the transition to the multicore environment as seamless as possible.”