NI Launches LabVIEW 2011 to Maximize Productivity

National Instruments announced NI LabVIEW 2011, system design software marking its 25th anniversary this year. For the past 25 years, NI LabVIEW has provided high productivity, enabling engineers worldwide to develop and deploy measurement and control systems more efficiently. LabVIEW 2011 ensures greater development efficiency than before through a more powerful engineering library and integration with new hardware deployment targets (including the new multicore NI CompactRIO controller and the industry-leading NI PXIe-5665 RF vector signal analyzer). In addition, NI LabVIEW supports assemblies built on the latest Microsoft .NET Framework and includes numerous new features developed based on user feedback. These advantages allow for the integration of individual system components into a single customizable platform, enabling faster and lower-cost integrated system development.

Jeff Kodosky, co-founder of National Instruments and creator of LabVIEW, said, “25 years ago, seeing engineers struggling with complex programming and integration issues, I developed LabVIEW so they could focus solely on system development. Now, 25 years after its development, LabVIEW has become the best system design software for measurement and control.” “With every new version of LabVIEW released, it has always evolved with integration with the latest hardware, the introduction of new libraries and APIs, and features reflecting user feedback; but above all, it has continuously enhanced engineer productivity, which is LabVIEW’s fundamental function and strength,” he said.

LabVIEW 2011 has achieved productivity improvements in various tasks through the following new features.

-- Development of a modern user interface with excellent visual effects through new silver palette controls and indicators

-- External code reuse with support for the latest .NET assemblies, .m structures, and Xilinx IP for the new LabVIEW FPGA Module

-- Implementation of FPGA code loading, wiring, editing, and compilation more than 5 times faster

-- Building executable files via programming and deploying to targets

-- Build multithreaded applications faster with a new communication API for asynchronous thread distribution

LabVIEW 2011 provides stability for critical core applications and simple integration with various hardware, giving engineers worldwide leading the measurement and control industry the confidence to achieve innovation efficiently along with technical infrastructure.

Glenn Larkin, an engineer at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the birthplace of advanced convergence research and home to one of the world's most powerful lasers, said, “System development time using LabVIEW has been reduced to one-third of what it was using conventional methods. “By extending the experience gained so far in using LabVIEW and NI hardware to NIF-supported facilities, we will be able to achieve the same productivity improvements in future projects,” he said.

When LabVIEW 2011 is combined with modular hardware, it forms a single platform that maximizes efficiency in designing, prototyping, and deploying applications. This enables engineers worldwide to utilize NI's graphical system design platform for everything from basic measurement applications to complex, advanced research projects.