LabView takes on software development
-- Test & Measurement World, 8/4/2009 10:39:00 AM
| For reports from NIWeek 2009, read Rick Nelson's blog, Taking the Measure |
LabView 2009 adds a host of new toolkits that focus on software design and validation as well as giving you more control over multiple processor cores. Other features focus on wireless signal testing.
Engineers are finding that regulatory agencies and quality policies require them to verify test-programming code in addition to verifying the embedded code in their products. As a result, LabView now addresses software validation for test. The Unit Test Framework Toolkit automates and documents test-code validation by letting you enter known-good and known-bad values into a VI (virtual instrument). You can see how your code performs with both in-spec and out-of-spec values. The toolkit generates test reports in HTML format that tell you how long the tests take to run and how much of the code was tested.
The Desktop Execution Trace Toolkit lets you trace the execution of a LabView application running on Microsoft Windows. Operating while your application runs, the toolkit can detect and locate problems in your code that could affect performance or cause unexpected behavior. For example, you can point the toolkit to a VI and get information such as execution time and memory allocation. You can think if it as an event log that provides information that can help you find problems such as timing errors in loops. The toolkit also gives you an idea of how applications take advantage of multicore processors by letting you see the activities of each processor core.
The VI Analyzer Toolkit lets you configure more than 60 tests for automated code review and static code analysis of all VIs in an application. The tests look for proper documentation and code references that open but don’t close, which lead to memory leaks. It finds ways that you can consolidate loops to make for more efficient code and it can find cases that will never run, which you can remove from your application.
The Requirements Gateway helps you manage software requirements by comparing requirements stored in multiple formats. It works by reading requirements documents and gathering information from your application to see if requirements were actually implemented. The Requirements Gateway can help you organize requirements before you even write code.
LabView 2009 also gives you additional power over multicore processors. For example, parallel for-loop functions let you run for-next loops on different processor cores. Thus, you can make processes run in parallel that would otherwise run sequentially.
Other toolkits for LabView 2009 let you test wireless devices such as GPS, WiMAX, and WiFi for standards’ compliance. The GPS Simulation Toolkit lets you create simulated global GPS waveforms for use with National Instruments' PXI RF signal generators. The Measurement Suite for Fixed WiMAX provides generation and analysis functions for Fixed WiMAX (IEEE 802.16-2004) signals using the RF signal generator and a PXI RF signal analyzer. The WLAN Measurement Suite lets you create and analyze IEEE 802.11a/b/g signals.
Base price for LabView 2009: $1249. National Instruments, www.ni.com/labview.
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