National Instruments has built on the inherent parallel nature of graphical programming with the latest version of its LabVIEW graphical system design platform for control, test and embedded system development.
With an eye on the requirements of developing with multicore processors, LabVIEW 8.6 
has more than 1,200 optimised analysis functions designed to provide enhanced maths and signal processing on multicore systems for control and test applications.
There are new image processing functions included in the Vision Development Module that automatically distributes data sets in vision applications across multiple cores.
“The graphical 
interface makes it simpler to map parallel processing structures,” said Ian Bell, technical marketing manager at National Instruments.
According to Bell, test engineers can develop applications to test wireless devices up to four times faster with the latest version of the Modulation Toolkit for LabVIEW and control system engineers can execute simulation models in parallel up to five times faster with the LabVIEW 8.6 Control Design and Simulation Module.
The company has also added to LabVIEW’s usefulness as an FPGA development platform with this release based on the existing FPGA module and FPGA-based hardware such as NI CompactRIO.
Compilation has been speeded up with the introduction of a ‘scan engine’ which can reduce the number compiles needed. Offered for specific FPGAs the engine allows direct access to I/O and so allows the designer to get up and running with little or no need for code compiling. There is no need for experience in low-level hardware description languages or board-level design.
Another feature of this release is the support of an 802.11 wireless interface for remote data acquisition.