LabVIEW Real-Time, FPGA, PDA, and Embedded

There are a few special add-on modules for LabVIEW that we should mention. These are the LabVIEW Real-Time, LabVIEW FPGA, LabVIEW PDA, and LabVIEW Embedded modules, which allow you to run your LabVIEW VIs on other execution targets.

The LabVIEW Real-Time module is a hardware and software combination that allows you to take portions of your LabVIEW code, and download them to be executed on a separate controller board with its own real-time operating system. This means that you can guarantee that certain pieces of your LabVIEW program will keep running with precision, even if your user interface host machine crashes and your computer screeches to a halt.

The LabVIEW FPGA and LabVIEW PDA modules allow you to target your LabVIEW programs to run on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), respectively. The LabVIEW FPGA module provides the capability to leverage the inherently parallel nature of data-flow programming with the inherently parallel programmable logic device, the FPGA chip. The LabVIEW PDA module allows developers to deploy LabVIEW applications on hand-held devices such as those running Palm OS and Pocket PC, for creating hand-held, portable, networked data acquisition systems.

The LabVIEW Embedded Module allows you to compile your LabVIEW VIs and run them on any (yes, any!) 32-bit microprocessor platform by integrating LabVIEW with third-party toolchains. This includes the GNU C++ (gcc) compiler, eCos, Wind River Tornado/VxWorks, and many other platformsand you can create your own toolchain support layer, so the sky is the limit.

As we move into the future, expect to be able to run your LabVIEW VIs. . . well. . . everywhere! "LabVIEW Everywhere" is the philosophy that you should be able to develop LabVIEW virtual instruments and deploy them onto just about any hardware, even reconfiguring the hardware to perform in ways that the hardware designers had not anticipated. National Instruments is committed to this philosophy and will undoubtedly provide more and better tools and modules for running "LabVIEW Everywhere."