Software designed controller simplifies control systems

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September 2014 PLCs, DCSs & Controllers

National Instruments has announced the CompactRIO performance controller. This software designed controller integrates the latest embedded technologies from Intel and Xilinx to deliver unparalleled performance and flexibility, and is fully supported by LabVIEW 2014 and NI Linux Real-Time. It is ideal for advanced control and applications in harsh, industrial environments and provides high-performance processing, custom timing and triggering, and data transfer from modular C Series I/O.

“The LabVIEW RIO architecture breaks the barriers of traditional embedded system design and provides the best off-the-shelf platform to solve any demanding control and monitoring task,” says Jamie Smith, director of embedded systems at NI. “Our platform-based approach gives small design teams the confidence to build innovative embedded systems without wasting development time and cost.”

LabVIEW 2014 with NI Linux Real-Time support lets engineers and scientists use a single, familiar development environment to continue developing their system while taking immediate advantage of increased CompactRIO hardware performance.

“The Intel and NI collaboration allows industrial customers to benefit from the latest processing technologies while meeting their rugged performance requirements,” says Shahram Mehraban, global head of energy and industrial segments at the Intel Internet of Things Group. “By working closely with NI during early phases of product development, we are able to bring the latest Intel Atom processor to this segment.”

Key features include:

* Intel Atom Processor: close the loop faster, tackle more tasks with the same controller and process data with more precision, accuracy and speed with this dual-core processor.

* Kintex-7 FPGA: process more channels and implement more complex filtering and control algorithms.

* NI Linux Real-Time: get access to an extensive community of applications and IP with a robust Linux-based real-time OS.

* Embedded UI: implement a local HMI device and use the control system to handle HMI tasks, cutting component costs as well as development and integration time.

* Improved vision integration: add USB3 or GigE Vision cameras using NI Linux Real-Time, integrate vision acquisition directly into an application and use new Vision IP to turn the FPGA into a high-performance vision coprocessor.

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PLCs, DCSs & Controllers

Software designed controller simplifies control systems

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