National Instruments has announced a high-performance eight-slot chassis that delivers deterministic expansion I/O to the NI LabVIEW graphical development platform. The chassis provides high-speed, jitter-free communication for applications such as distributed control, machine building and hardware in the loop.

The NI 9144 eight-slot expansion chassis is compatible with more than 30 analogue and digital NI C Series modules for high-accuracy measurement quality and direct connectivity to a wide variety of sensors.

The expansion chassis works with NI real-time controllers that have two Ethernet ports, including NI CompactRIO and PXI. The NI 9144 also features two Ethernet ports, making it possible for engineers to daisy-chain multiple NI 9144 chassis from a single controller to expand their time-critical applications while maintaining hard determinism with minimal processor resources.

Using a system of synchronised clocks, the NI 9144 communicates deterministically across a standard CAT5 Ethernet cable and can be distributed up to 100 metres between chassis. With a temperature range of -40ºC to 70ºC and 50g shock ratings, the rugged chassis is designed for industrial applications.

The NI 9144 works with minimal configuration because the LabVIEW Real-Time Module 8.6 automatically recognises all connected slaves and modules. LabVIEW offers easy access to the physical channels using the click-and-drag I/O variable, live test panels and I/O forcing for troubleshooting.

The deterministic Ethernet chassis is the latest product that integrates with NI technology such as FPGAs programmable with LabVIEW as well as industrial communications hardware and modular instruments, making it ideal for applications such as machine building, large distributed systems, big physics and hardware in the loop.

For more information on the NI 9144 chassis, visit www.ni.com/distributedio/expand.