Dual-core PXI controller improves the performance of multithreaded applications

Test & Measurement

28 June 2006 Test & Measurement

National Instruments has developed the industry's first dual-core PXI embedded controller with the 2,0 GHz Intel Core Duo processor T2500, for multitasking environments and multithreaded applications.

The dual-core PXI controller improves the performance of multithreaded applications up to 100% versus single-core PXI controllers with the same processor clock rate, claims NI.

With two computing engines in one physical processor, the dual-core processor can simultaneously execute two computing tasks - a significant benefit in multitasking environments, such as Windows XP, that run multiple applications at one time. In addition, it can simultaneously execute two threads, or tasks, within multithreaded applications, such as NI's LabView software. With LabView, engineers can easily develop multithreaded applications by simply using parallel data flow, for example drawing a loop around each segment of the graphical code they wish to execute in a separate thread.

The dual-core processor is also ideal for multichannel, multirate data-logging applications using LabView and DIAdem software or Microsoft Excel because the data acquisition and data storage to the hard drive can run in parallel for optimal performance.

The PXI-8105 dual-core embedded controller uses the Intel's Mobile 945GM Express chipset, which also includes the PCI Express bus to give integrated peripherals on the controller the bandwidth required to operate at a full rate while communicating with and processing data from PXI modules using the PCI bus. Another of these peripherals is an ExpressCard/34 slot, which uses the PCI Express and USB 2.0 serial interfaces to provide up to 2,5 Gbps throughput in each direction. Other standard peripherals include four USB 2.0 ports, GPIB, serial and parallel.

The controller also features 512 MB of dual-channel 667 MHz DDR2 memory standard, analog and digital DVI-I video and a 60 GB Serial ATA hard drive.

The controller is ideal for a variety of applications, including mixed-signal test in consumer electronics, RF test in communications and octave analysis in sound and vibration. It works with all PXI modular instruments and data acquisition modules, and comes with WinXP Professional preinstalled.

For more information contact NI South Africa, 0800 203 199, [email protected]

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Dual-core PXI controller improves the performance of multithreaded applications

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