Four Instrumentation Software Packages Announced for Windows NT

National Instruments Tightens Working Relationship with Microsoft Corp.

May 24, 1993 -- Atlanta, GA - National Instruments announced today at
COMDEX/Windows World four software packages for the Microsoft Windows NT
operating system. The company has ported its LabVIEW graphical
instrumentation software and NI-488.2M, NI-DAQ, and NI-VXI driver software
to Windows NT. Engineers and scientists migrating to Windows NT can use
LabVIEW's graphical programming to create PC-based systems for data
acquisition (DAQ), data analysis, and instrument control. LabVIEW uses the
company's NI-488.2M, NI-DAQ, and NI-VXI driver software to interface with
its hardware - IEEE 488.2 instrument interfaces, plug-in DAQ boards, and
VXIbus controllers. Engineers and scientists can also use these drivers
with traditional programming languages and Windows NT.

Moving to Windows NT 

National Instruments has worked closely with Microsoft to facilitate the
rapid port of LabVIEW and the driver software to Windows NT. National
Instruments is unique among Windows software and hardware developers
because of the demands its products place not only on the Windows
graphical user interface, but also on the I/O capabilities of the
operating system. Because of the heavy use of memory-mapped I/O,
interrupts, and DMA, as well as the need for real-time response and high
data throughput for measurement and control applications, the National
Instruments driver software and LabVIEW push the technical limits of the
Windows operating system much further than general-purpose applications
such as word processors and spreadsheets.

The initial work to create Windows DLLs for DAQ and instrument control
hardware helped National Instruments improve the performance of interrupt
handling and DMA transfers in DLLs. This work included writing a 32-bit
Virtual Interrupt Service Routine Driver (VISRD) to improve interrupt
response time under enhanced mode Windows. The knowledge gained in
optimizing the l 6-bit DLLs for Windows 3.1 and writing the VISRD helped
greatly when porting to the 32-bit DLLs for Windows NT.

The port of LabVIEW from Windows 3.1 to Windows NT took minimal effort
because LabVIEW, as released for Windows 3.1 in September 1992, was
already written as a 32-bit application. As a result of working early with
Microsoft and having knowledge of their future plans, National Instruments
opted to develop LabVIEW as a 32-bit clean application to prepare for
Windows NT, and then modify the program to run in 16-bit mode of Windows
3.1. Consequently, the porting efforts from Windows 3.1 to Windows NT
focused primarily on taking advantage of the extended capabilities of
Windows NT, such as multithreading, NTFS, and the built-in TCP/IP
support.

Both Microsoft and National Instruments have benefited from the developer
relationship. "Working closely with Microsoft gave us a headstart on
porting our products to Windows NT," explains James Truchard, president
and chairman of the board of National Instruments. "We are excited about
the upcoming release of Windows NT and the opportunities its enhanced
capabilities presents for our existing and future products."

Brad Struss, manager of Win32 developer relations, explains the nature of
the relationship - "National Instruments has been an active beta tester
and user of our 32-bit Windows products, including Windows NT and Win32s.
On many issues, such as the development of Win 32s, they were among the
ISVs who provided us valuable feedback on a number of Win32 design issues.
Along with a number of other ISVs we invited them to show their LabVIEW
product running on Windows NT and Windows 3.1 with Win32s in our ISV booth
at the Fall COMDEX show to demonstrate how this type of engineering and
scientific software takes advantage of Windows NT and Win32s features.
Additionally, a beta version of LabVIEW was one of the 26 third party
products included on the Win32 Sampler CD that was distributed to a core
set of our Windows NT beta sites."

About LabVIEW for Windows NT 

LabVIEW is a general-purpose graphical programming language used
extensively for DAQ, instrument control, data analysis, and data
presentation. With LabVIEW, engineers and scientists build software
modules called virtual instruments (VIs) instead of writing text-based
programs. LabVIEW features a library of ready-to-use controls, graphs, and
strip charts for quickly and easily building custom user interfaces and
control panels. With LabVIEW, users build block diagrams as the executable
programs. Icon libraries include GPIB, VXI, and Instrument Driver VI
Libraries for controlling over 300 GPIB, VXI, and RS-232 instruments using
the company's interface hardware; and Analysis VI Libraries for performing
data analysis, including routines ranging from simple statistics to
advanced digital signal processing (DSP). LabVIEW also has a DAQ VI
Library for controlling the company's PC plug-in DAQ, DSP, and signal
conditioning hardware.

LabVIEW for Windows NT is compatible with the Windows 3.1 version of
LabVIEW. All programs developed for LabVIEW for Windows can be run under
LabVIEW for Windows NT.

About Nl-488.2M for Windows NT 

NI-488.2M is a multitasking software package that simplifies programming
the National Instruments PC-to-IEEE 488.2 interfaces that function as GPIB
Controllers, with complete communication and bus-management capabilities
for the IBM PC AT, IBM PS/2, and compatibles. The software is installed as
a loadable device driver. It includes over 50 GPIB-related routines and
functions, thus eliminating the need for the user to understand or program
the hardware. Operations include Talker, Listener, Active Controller, and
System Controller.

Nl-488.2M for Windows NT includes the industry-standard set of NI-488.2M
functions and a set of routines that duplicate the IEEE 488.2-specified
sequences and protocols. New driver features include "Smart I/O. which
automatically selects the most efficient data transfer method - either DMA
or Programmed I/O. depending on the transfer size. NI488.2M also includes
a language interface library for the Windows NT version of the Microsoft C
compiler. For other languages, a dynamic link library (DLL) provides a set
of direct entry points that users can access through any application that
can access 32-bit DLLs. The NI-488.2M software package includes
configuration and debugging utilities, as well as a completely new
documentation set. NI488.2M for Windows NT maintains the same programming
syntax as all other NI488.2M (and NI488.2) software packages, so users can
easily port their applications to Windows NT.

About NI-DAQ for Windows NT 

NI-DAQ is a high-performance DLL that controls the company's plug-in DAQ
boards. NI-DAQ contains DAQ I/O routines, a resource manager, and a data
and buffer manager, so users can develop both simple and complex DAQ
applications. Over 110 DAQ I/O routines control the analog, digital, and
timing 1/0; triggering; and multiplexing of plug-in DAQ boards. With the
NI-DAQ Resource Manager, applications can simultaneously control a variety
of functions on several boards. The Resource Manager also prevents
multiboard contention over DMA channels, interrupt levels, and Real-Time
System Integration (RTSI bus channels. The data and buffer manager handles
large arrays, streams data to and from disk, and coordinates double
buffering using polling, interrupts, and DMA. With double buffering, an
application can seamlessly acquire or generate arrays of data while
simultaneously processing other arrays of data.

NI-DAQ for Windows NT can be event-driven to notify applications whenever a
user-specified DAQ event occurs. Examples of possible user events include
completion of a DAQ operation; the analog level and slope of a signal
matching at certain levels; and the signal inside or outside a voltage
band.

Users can develop applications in any programming language that accesses
DLLs, such as Microsoft C. NI-DAQ for Windows NT maintains the same
interface as NI-DAQ for Windows 3.1 and DOS, so users can easily upgrade
applications from Windows or DOS to run under Windows NT.

About Nl-VXI for Windows NT 

NI-VXI is a software package that simplifies programming VXI with C or
LabVIEW. Nl-VXI features intuitive graphical tools for interacting with
and learning about VXI, comprehensive high-performance routines for
programming VXI using the C programming language or the LabVIEW software
system, including a VXI Virtual Instruments Library to simplify graphical
programming with LabVIEW. Nl-VXI includes a Resource Manager, an
interactive VXI Resource Editor, a comprehensive library of software
routines for VXI programming, and a VXI Interactive Control program for
interacting with and learning about the VXIbus. NI-VXI can control
multiple-mainframe VXI configurations. Programs developed with NI-VXI for
Windows NT are compatible with Nl-VXI programs for many other VXI
controller platforms.

Pricing and Availability 

The Windows NT software products will be available when Windows NT is
available later this summer. Pricing for LabVIEW for Windows NT will be
available in June. Please call National Instruments Public Relations
Department at (512) 794-0100 for pricing information on LabVIEW for
Windows NT.

Nl-488.2M for Windows NT for existing AT-GPIB and MC-GPIB users is priced
at $200. N1488.2M for Windows NT runs only on GPIB hardware with the
Turbo488/NAT4882 chip set. Hardware upgrades are available. NI-DAQ for
Windows NT is included with all plug-in DAQ boards. Customers with NI-DAQ
for DOS/Windows can upgrade to NI-DAQ for Windows NT for $95. NI-VXI will
be available to existing users for $995.

For more information, contact National Instruments, 6504 Bridge Point
Parkway, Austin, TX 78730-5039, (512) 794-0100. Call toll free in the U.S.
and Canada at (800) 433-3488. Fax: (512) 794-8411.

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