National Instruments LabVIEW 2010

National Instruments has announced LabVIEW 2010, the latest version of its graphical programming environment for design, test, measurement and control applications.

With LabVIEW 2010, the compiler data flow intermediate representation has been further optimised, and low-level virtual machine (LLVM), an open source compiler infrastructure, has been added to the software’s compiler flow to accelerate code execution. National Instruments has conducted benchmarks that show a 20% average performance improvement.

With the release of LabVIEW 2010, National Instruments is also introducing the LabVIEW Add-On Developer Program to give partners the opportunity to expand the platform and introduce custom functionality into LabVIEW. The program establishes an online marketplace as part of the updated LabVIEW Tools Network for developers to offer their free and paid toolkits and a comprehensive location for LabVIEW users to browse, download, evaluate and purchase the add-ons.

Additionally, National Instruments has partnered with leading technology providers such as Xilinx to further open up the LabVIEW environment. The IP Integration node makes it possible for users to integrate any third-party FPGA IP into the LabVIEW FPGA Module and offers direct compatibility with cores created with the Xilinx CORE Generator.

For more advanced users and development groups, LabVIEW 2010 includes features that improve interfaces to re-usable code, group VIs and their hierarchy for faster build times and separate the VI source code from the compiled version to aid in source code management. These capabilities are for large group development where code maintenance across many users, software versions and computer platforms is critical.