NIWeek 2018: LabVIEW 2018 speeds time to market

He cites 5G, IoT and automotive applications as the drivers of the need for increased productivity loaded onto companies which have to meet increasingly compressed test times with smaller teams while at the same time dealing with products of increasing complexity.

Schreier used the example of his brother-in-law’s car recently shunted to the detriment of a rear light assembly.

“A few years back a replacement would have cost $67,” says Schreier. “It was just a light bulb and some Perspex.”

Today his brother in law had to cough up $500 to replace the mix of sensors and cameras and connectivity. “What that means is that there is an awful lot more to test”, concludes Schreier.

So more complexity but speed is of the essence.

“Engineers need better tools to organise, develop and integrate systems so that they can accomplish their goals within their acceptable boundaries,” adds Schreier.

Enter, stage left, LabView2018, which addresses these challenges for engineers.

They can now integrate more third party tools like Python to make the most of strengths of each package or existing IP from their stakeholders, and test engineers can use new functionality in LabVIEW 2018 to strengthen code reliability by automating the building and executing of software through integration with open interface tools like Jenkins for continuous delivery.

These capabilities enable test engineers to focus on system integration and development where they can offer unique differentiation, and not get bogged down in the semantics of how to use software tools or move IP from one to another.

For test engineers using FPGAs for high performance processing, new deep learning functions and improved floating point operations can reduce time to market.

LabView 2018 features products tailored to needs within distinct stages of their workflow.

The newly-minted InstrumentStudio software provides an interactive, multi-instrument experience.

It simplifies the development and debugging of automated test systems. It integrates PXI instruments into a single view and can monitor instruments and debug in parallel with running code.

Applications include automated device validation, and production test in aerospace, automotive and semiconductor test.