Austin, TX— National Instruments (www.ni.com) announced a major upgrade to its LabView graphical-development platform. LabView 8 introduces distributed intelligence—a suite of new capabilities for engineers and scientists to use to design, distribute, and synchronize intelligent devices and systems. The release also features a new project-based environment for developing and managing large-scale applications and the latest in Express technology for simplified instrument control. Significant updates have also been made to the LabView Real-Time, FPGA, PDA, and Datalogging and Supervisory Control modules.

"The new version expands the LabView platform to increase productivity for a broader range of applications and technologies," said Dr. James Truchard, NI president and CEO, including "heterogeneous test systems, rapid system prototyping, full-scale system automation, and embedded real-time, FPGA, and microprocessor systems—all using the same open and intuitive platform." This latest version extends graphical programming further into test and control systems, such as real-time distributed communication and control tools. It is said to present a simplified, scalable interface for communicating with and synchronizing between remote intelligent devices and systems, such as real-time processors and FPGAs. Embedded designers, test engineers, and control system engineers can use the same graphical platform for simple data transfer, deterministic real-time communication and network synchronization with integrated alarms, events, and data logging.

Other key features in the upgrade include LabView Project, which introduces a new project-based environment for managing large applications and team development. It has tools for multiple target management; integrated code differencing and source code control; multi-build management; and the ability to deploy applications to desktop, mobile, industrial, and embedded targets. The new version also continues to build on Express technology with new tools for simplifying instrument control and data acquisition.