Welcome to NI Lab's Graphical Timing Software

[thayles]

I would like to thank you in advance for your interest in LabVIEW and in new and hopefully more efficient ways to program input and ouput devices. If you download and install this software you will see a new sub-palette added to the LV FPGA Input and Output palette. This new palette experiments with a new, non-dataflow model of computation that brings I/O resources right up on the LabVIEW diagram as free running actors, something they actually are on the R Series boards or cRIO cartridges. This palette currently is only operable on LV FPGA targets (R Series boards and many cRIO modules - please see the readme and the documentation that is installed in the examples folder) but I think the ideas would apply to most, if not the majority of input and output devices.

The asynchronous wire is a key enabling technology for this approach. Both data and timing information is conveyed on these non-dataflow wires. It is the ability of these wires to carry clocks and triggers that give this NI Lab's software its name. Ordinary dataflow wires and nodes are able to interoperate with the asynchronous wires and free-running nodes, producing an interesting, mixed model of computation.

We hope to have a new, more powerful release of this software in the upcoming months. In the meantime, please post any comments, good and bad, that you have concerning this software.

[JK-USP]

Hi,

1 - I've just installed the Graphical Timing Software from ni labs and opened the ReadMe.docx file that comes with the package. I use MS Office 2003 and the file was generated with Office 2007, thus a conversion file tool is required. MS Word automatically looked for a conversion tool, I installed it but it complained that can open only pre-release versions of Office 2007 files. What about  providing a ReadMe file saved for earlier versions of MS Office ?
2-I followed your email hints, and I looked for some new tools in the FPGA interface pallete. However, no one had shown up neither using FPGA target nor with My computer target.

Joao

[thayles]

Thanks for downloading the software. The new palette items will not appear on the fpga host interface palette as they are for programs that run on the fpga itself. So, you need to create a project, add an fpga target, like a PCI-7831R, open a VI in the context of that fpga target and then browse the palette. The new sub-palette should appear in the fpga i/o palette.

I have attached a version of the document that was created with an older version of Word. Please let me know if you can open it.

- Tim

[JK-USP]

Hi Tim,

thanks for the file and for your help. Everything works fine now. I'll follow exploring the new stuff.

Joao

[thayles]

I gave a keynote demo at NIWeek this year of an application of this palette. While some of the features I used for this application won't be availalbe until the next release of the palette, you might find it interesting. To see the video goto http://www.ni.com/niweek/keynote_videos.htm and select the Wednesday keynote and scroll down to the Algorithm Engineering part. About 5 minutes into the video I begin describing the application.

[JK-USP]

Hi Tim,

I attended your  presentation at the NIweek keynote session and it was because of it that went to ni labs looking for this subject. Thank you anyway for the link, I took this opportunity to download the video and show it to my students. I'll give you feedback of my further impressions with the toolkit.

Joao

[thayles]

I was asked to post something about the compatibility of the Graphical Timing Software with LabVIEW 8.5. This palette should work fine in LabVIEW 8.5. The nodes will be recompiled as you load them into 8.5 the first time and LabVIEW will ask you to save them when you close.

The next version of the palette, still a month or two away, will only work in LabVIEW 8.5

[thayles]

Well, there is at least one problem with using this palette in 8.5.  You may get a dialog asking you to find GetEIOInfo.vi   It is now at this location 

 <LabVIEW 8.5>\resource\Framework\Providers\lvrioasst\TreeOps.llb

[thayles]

The installer for the Graphical Timing Software does not give you a choice for the installation directory and will install into LV8.5 if it is present. The current intsall doesn't support 8.5 and only works in 8.2.0 and 8.2.1. If you also have one of those versions installed, you will have to perform the following manual steps to move the installation from 8.5 to 8.2.x to get it working under 8.2.x.

1. Under vi.lib there is an async eio folder. Move this folder and its contents to the vi.lib folder under 8.2.x

2. Under examples there is an async eio folder. Move this folder and its contents to the examples folder under 8.2.x

3. In Targets\NI\FPGA\menus\FPGACategories\Programming there is an async io.mnu file. Move this file to the same folder under 8.2.x

4. In LabVIEW.ini there is this token: asynchWiresEnabled=2. Copy this to your 8.2 .ini file.

5. Launch 8.2.x, open a VI under the FPGA context, select Tools->Advanced->Edit Palette Set... and add the async io.mnu sub-palette to the FPGA I/O palette.

I am still a few weeks away from getting the LV 8.5 version of this palette on NI Labs. This palette has many improvements including IF-RIO support.

[thayles]

I've just posted version 2.0 of the Graphical Timing Software package to NI-Labs. Also known as the Asynchronous FPGA I/O Prototype, this version both consolidates the model of the previous version as well as adds new primitives for the IF-RIO product (PCI-5640R IF Transciever). Among many other changes, the type heirarchy of the timing wires is further defined and a circular buffer data exchange policy has been added to the asynchronous data wires (though consumers of this policy are limited to the DACs of the supported hardware). The functionality of the harness node has been increased, with specific attention to moderating mutli-rate flow of streamed data.

The zip file contains an installer that WinZip will run automatically for you. The user manual is installed in the examples/ahdeio folder of your LabVIEW 8.5 directory. I have also attached it to this post. AHD refers to Asynchronous Heterogeneous Dataflow, a term that attempts to describe the model of computation expressed by this package.

Please post to this forum any concerns or difficulties you have with this package.

Thank You.

- Tim Hayles