Graphical Software Streamlines Algorithm Design

New software can aid medical device developers, machine builders and automotive systems designers

Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, August 3, 2009

From NIWeek: Citing a need to help with prototyping of complex embedded systems, National Instruments today said it is rolling out new features in its graphical systems design software that will simplify the process of deploying math algorithms to real-time operating systems.

Known as LabView 2009, the new software will enable product developers to put text-based math directly into an embedded system. "Without any translation, without changing any code, engineers can deploy '.m files' to a real-time operating system," says P.J. Tanzillo, embedded software product manager for National Instruments. The new feature is an update to the well-known LabView graphical systems software, which is used by designers worldwide for the design and prototyping of products with embedded electronic controls. The update to LabView was rolled out at NIWeek 2009 in Austin, TX today.

By simplifying the process of deploying math algorithms to real-time operating systems, National Instruments says its new software can aid medical device developers, machine builders and automotive systems designers. Medical device designers, for example, can use text-based math to describe matrices and vectors employed in signal analysis on a blood pressure monitor.

The new feature could help streamline algorithm design and deployment in many embedded systems. Up until now, text-based math tools designed on the desktop typically needed to be re-written for use on a real-time embedded operating system. That re-implementation process added time and complexity to the creation of products that used filtering of time-domain and frequency-domain signals.

"When they're working on vectors or matrices of data, a lot of engineers prefer to do it in text-based math code," Tanzillo says. "This enables them to do that."

LabView 2009 simplifies the process by incorporating NI's MathScript RT Module, which expands access to real-time math and eliminates the re-implementation process. As a result, NI engineers say they can help embedded product developers reduce time to market.

"The idea of the LabView environment is to give engineers some tools on the desktop to design their algorithms the way they feel most comfortable," Tanzillo says. "Now if they want to use LabView graphical code, or the MathScript Module, or C-code, they can. We give them ways of combining or integrating all those approaches."