NI LabVIEW 2010 optimizes compiler for faster code execution

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

LabVIEW 2010 delivers time savings with new features such as off-the-shelf compiler technologies that execute code an average of 20 percent faster and a comprehensive marketplace for evaluating and purchasing add-on toolkits for easily integrating custom functionality into the platform.

For field-programmable gate array (FPGA) users, LabVIEW 2010 delivers a new IP Integration Node that makes it possible to integrate any third-party FPGA IP into LabVIEW applications and is compatible with the Xilinx CORE Generator. National Instruments also implemented more than a dozen new features suggested by lead users through the LabVIEW Idea Exchange, an online feedback forum that marks a significant new level of collaboration between NI R&D and customers.

Introduced in 1986, LabVIEW abstracts the complexity of programming by giving users drag-and-drop, graphical function blocks and wires that resemble a flowchart to develop their sophisticated systems.

LabVIEW offers integration with thousands of hardware devices, provides hundreds of built-in libraries for advanced analysis and data visualization and is scalable across multiple OSs and targets such as x86 processors, real-time OSs (RTOSs) and FPGAs. From the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics kit to the CERN Large Hadron Collider, a large spectrum of users worldwide has adopted LabVIEW.

“LabVIEW users are some of the most innovative people in the world, and their input helps us make LabVIEW an ever more effective and productive programming tool,” said Jeff Kodosky, National Instruments business and technology fellow, cofounder and ‘father of LabVIEW.’

“With LabVIEW 2010, we have taken their feedback and suggestions and opened up the platform to further customization so that our customers and partners can expand LabVIEW to new applications that have not yet experienced the power and efficiency of graphical programming.”

Executing code faster
Key to the productivity delivered by LabVIEW is the compiler, which abstracts tasks such as memory allocation and thread management. The compiler hierarchy has evolved over the lifetime of LabVIEW to become smarter and more optimized.

With LabVIEW 2010, the compiler data flow intermediate representation has been further optimized, 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 ranging from real-world customer applications to low-level functions, and the new compiler delivers an average improvement of 20 percent across these benchmarks.