Provides time-deterministic communication and synchronized measurement capabilities over standard Ethernet networks.

National Instruments (NI) announced the release of a new CompactRIO controller featuring NI-DAQmx drivers and Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) capabilities.

This CompactRIO controller provides deterministic communications and synchronized measurements over standard Ethernet networks, improving performance, flexibility, and productivity.

With this new product announcement, NI is the first to market with industrial embedded hardware supporting TSN, the next-generation IEEE 802.11 Ethernet standard. This product is also a testament to NI's continued investment in TSN. TSN enables engineers to synchronize distributed systems across a network, eliminating the need for expensive synchronization cables.

As the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) continues to be implemented across the automotive, oil and gas, research, and aerospace industries, the task of collecting accurate, reliable, and synchronized data from distributed nodes is becoming increasingly complex. To keep pace with this shift, companies need to ensure their systems are ready to meet evolving requirements.

In the research sector, Germany's AMS Software GmbH is already actively leveraging the flexibility of CompactRIO with NI-DAQmx. “We are very excited about the flexibility that the new CompactRIO controller provides us,” said Klaudius Pinkawa, CEO of AMS Software. “Traditionally, we had to set up several experiments in the lab and then fly them out to the aircraft in zero gravity. CompactRIO with NI-DAQmx allows us to run all our experiments using the same hardware in both environments, saving us development time and reducing the risk to our experiments.”

Sub-microsecond synchronization is possible with TSN over standard Ethernet for robust synchronization and distributed measurement and control. Intuitive NI-DAQmx driver software reduces measurement times compared to previous CompactRIO controllers.

It supports the NI Linux Real-Time OS for open and secure processing as an edge node for industrial IoT. Its industrial processor, programmable with LabVIEW FPGA, and onboard FPGA enable high-performance data analysis and control.

The addition of the NI-DAQmx driver to the CompactRIO controller family gives engineers direct access to I/O with ready-to-use functionality. This has made NI-DAQmx data acquisition the preferred method for the past 15 years. Combining the openness of the NI Linux Real-Time OS with NI-DAQmx allows users to continue to leverage the vast IP ecosystem on Linux, including Security Enhanced Linux (SE-Linux).