National Instruments Redesigns NI CompactRIO From the Inside Out

08/12/2013

National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) announced the new cRIO-9068 software-designed controller, which is completely redesigned but maintains full NI LabVIEW and I/O compatibility with the CompactRIO platform. The controller integrates state-of-the-art technologies including the Xilinx Zynq-7020 All Programmable system on a chip (SoC), which combines a dual-core ARM^® Cortex™-A9 processor and Xilinx 7 Series FPGA fabric.

“Within 24 hours of receiving a cRIO-9068 controller, we ran our existing LabVIEW application software without any problems,” said Bob Leigh, president and CEO of LocalGrid™ Technologies. “We were impressed by the easy software transition between CompactRIO systems and by the incredible performance improvement of the new software-designed controller.”

Based on the LabVIEW reconfigurable I/O (RIO) architecture, the new CompactRIO controller helps meet any demanding embedded control and monitoring task without wasting development time and cost. Engineers and scientists worldwide use the CompactRIO platform to build systems that can suppress fires on cargo airplanes, generate electricity through the flight of tethered kites and precisely stack 20 tons of wet concrete.

The new cRIO-9068 controller features:

• Four times faster performance than previous generations, powered by a 667 MHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA
• New Linux-based, real-time OS that provides greater flexibility for both LabVIEW Real-Time and C/C++ application developers
• Extended operating temperature range of -40 °C to 70 °C
• Consistent LabVIEW programming experience that ensures both new and existing designs take full advantage of updated technology with minimal effort

“Because so many customers have invested in CompactRIO, we took this redesign extremely seriously,” said David Fuller, vice president of applications and embedded software at National Instruments. “Our R&D teams re-examined every part of the controller’s design and made sweeping improvements while maintaining complete backward code compatibility.”

The cRIO-9068 controller, programmed with LabVIEW system design software, enables engineers and scientists to use a single, graphical development environment to take advantage of improved hardware performance. LabVIEW 2013 support for the NI Linux Real-Time OS gives developers access to a rich set of community-sourced libraries and applications to augment their control and monitoring systems. LabVIEW 2013 also offers expanded connectivity options including improved web service creation and secure, industry-standard WebDAV browser-based file management.

“Although this controller looks similar to other CompactRIO devices, the technology under the hood is revolutionary,” said Wolfram Koerver, executive director of S.E.A. “With this platform we can provide software technologies to our customers which were almost impossible before or would have required a long development time and high investment.”

See the cRIO-9068 controller in detail at www.ni.com/crio-9068.

National Instruments, www.ni.com