A new brand, a new logo and a call to engineers who are standing tall in these uncertain time to stand taller. Unveiled today is NI, formerly National Instruments, and a new approach to the test and measurement market dubbed “Engineer Ambitiously”.  

National Instruments (NI) is opening up free access to its LabView and LabView NXG platforms for free non-commercial use to hobbyists.

New solutions for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation of electric vehicle (EV) powertrain components have been released by NI. They will be demonstrated at NIDays in Munich on November 20.  Government mandates for lower emissions and higher efficiency are increasing pressure on automakers to get EVs to market as quickly as possible.

A 4GHz Vehicle Radar Test System (VRTS) has been released by NI. It was demonstrated at NIDays in Munich on November 20. Automotive radar is essential to vehicle safety for current advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and future autonomous driving.

A real-time sub THz software-defined radio (SDR) for 6G research is built on NI’s mmWave Transceiver System (MTS) and Virginia Diodes’ (VDI) radio heads. Using VDI radio heads, the frequency range of the MTS can extend into the sub THz range.

A hardware-accelerated 5G mmWave OTA Validation Test reference architecture for thorough characterisation and validation of 5G mmWave beamforming AiP devices was unveiled by NI at European Microwave Week in Paris (October 1-3).

European Microwave Week in Paris provided the platform for NI to announce a Wi-Fi 6 Front-End test reference architecture for comprehensive, accurate and fast testing of the latest Wi-Fi 6 power amplifiers (PAs) and front-end modules (FEMs) operating in new frequency bands above 6GHz.

The S.E.A. C-V2X Open Loop Test System from NI leverages 5G wireless cellular technology to provide high bandwidth and low latency communication for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications.

A solution to test the computing platform for autonomous vehicles (AVs) has been released by NI. AVs are complex systems to test. At the heart of the AV is a powerful computing platform that analyses the environment around the vehicle and determines the appropriate action to help ensure the safety of the car and its surroundings.

Semiconductor Test System software enhancements that deliver significant improvements to the programming and debugging experience, test execution speed, parallel test efficiency and overall equipment efficiency have been unveiled by NI.

Ritu Favre has been named as senior vice president and general manager of National Instruments’ semiconductor business. In this role, Favre will set the strategic direction to drive business growth and build on the company's momentum in the industry. 

A quad-site mmWave 5G packaged test solution developed in collaboration with Tessolve and Johnstech was demonstrated by NI at the International Microwave Symposium in Boston. Addressing the technical challenges associated with 5G mmWave package part test, this solution helps reduce the time to market for manufacturers of mmWave 5G ICs.

The PXIe-5831 vector signal transceiver (VST) from NI has been developed to further address time-to-market challenges for X-band, Ku-band and Ka-band radar and satellite communications (SATCOM) components and systems.

Updates to its university-level teaching solution, the NI Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS) III have been released by NI at NIWeek 2019 in Austin. New application boards and upgraded software for NI ELVIS III provide a modernised, simpler interface for students to take measurements using industry-standard hardware even faster.

A 5G mmWave wafer probe test solution developed by NI in collaboration with Tokyo Electron (TEL), FormFactor and Reid-Ashman has been demonstrated at NIWeek 2019 in Austin. Addressing the technical challenges associated with 5G mmWave wafer probe test, the solution can help semiconductor manufacturers reduce their risk, cost and time to market for 5G mmWave ICs.

The latest version of NI’s SystemLink software was released at NIWeek 2019 in Austin. It has been developed to ease the daunting task of managing configuration activities and data for a fleet of distributed test and measurement systems, especially when systems incorporate a variety of device configurations and software combinations.

As is traditional at NIWeek, NI unveiled the latest release of its LabVIEW systems engineering software. The latest release of LabVIEW 2019 increases developer productivity through improved visibility in the IDE, powerful enhancements in debugging, and new datatypes to the G-language.

A real-time 5G New Radio (NR) test UE offering has been unveiled by NI. It features a fully 3GPP Release 15 non-standalone (NSA) compliant system capable of emulating the full operation of end-user devices or user equipment (UE). With the 5G commercial rollout this year, engineers must validate the design and functionality of 5G NR infrastructure equipment before productisation and release.

A new release of LabVIEW NXG has been unveiled by NI. It simplifies time-consuming tasks in automated test and automated measurement applications, from setting up and configuring systems to developing test and measurement code and creating web-ready applications. These enhancements should help engineers meet challenging time-to-market requirements.

A report which examines the most crucial engineering trends and challenges of the changing technology landscape, including the Internet of Things (IoT), the progression of 5G technology from prototyping to commercial deployment and autonomous driving for the masses has been released by NI.