High-level design tools offer field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to engineers and scientists who have little or no digital hardware design expertise. Whether you use graphical programming, C, or VHDL, the synthesis process is quite complex and can leave you wondering how FPGAs really work. What actually happens inside the chip to make programs execute within configurable blocks of silicon? This white paper is intended for the nondigital designer who wants to understand the fundamental parts of an FPGA and how it all works "under the hood." This information, also helpful when using high-level design tools, hopefully can shed some light on the inner workings of an extraordinary technology.

As the industrial landscape continues to move toward a more automated environment, engineers implementing monitoring and control applications encounter increasingly complex systems. Such industrial control systems often consist of independent Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs) managing specific, individual tasks. As these distributed systems increase in complexity, the control and monitoring tasks must be divided among several such PACs, networked together. Ensuring proper operation of this distributed industrial process requires the direction of system managers and operators. Yet while a central control "hub" is appropriate for managerial supervision, the distributed system is incomplete without Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) for more direct interaction. The LabVIEW Touch Panel module completes the National Instruments offering for managing remote systems by extending the LabVIEW graphical programming environment to rugged HMI industrial computers. This application note discusses the benefits of the LabVIEW Touch Panel module and provides a detailed step-by-step tutorial for adding an HMI to your existing PAC system.

This paper discusses the top ten things that you should consider if you are considering a new digitizer/oscilloscope.

See what the latest version of Multisim offers educators. With the release of Multisim 10.1, National Instruments continues to enhance the learning experience with education-specific features, such as measuring real-world data with instruments from the NI ELVIS II educational design and prototyping platform inside the Multisim environment for comparison.

Explore NI ELVIS, an educational design and prototyping platform based on NI LabVIEW. Take the guided tour and see the features that make NI ELVIS a leading teaching platform in areas of circuits, instrumentation, telecommunications, embedded/MCU, and controls. Explore NI ELVIS, an educational design and prototyping platform based on NI LabVIEW. Take the guided tour and see the features that make NI ELVIS a leading teaching platform in areas of circuits, instrumentation, telecommunications, embedded/MCU, and controls.

The new NI ELVIS II educational design and prototyping platform, based on LabVIEW graphical system design software, is used to teach concepts in circuit design, instrumentation, controls, telecommunications, and embedded/MCU theory. Why should you use the NI ELVIS II platform in your classroom and laboratory? Download top 10 reasons that you should adapt this leading educational platform.

This technical white paper describes embedded system development for machine control using a single, automated graphical programming tool chain and Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs).

Explore the mechatronics resources from NI. View example programs for each of the mechatronics focus areas, such as mechanical or control design and simulation, sensing and signal conditioning, motors and actuators, or digital signal processing.

The use of proper lighting is often overlooked when designing a machine vision application. More robust and accurate inspections can be achieved when appropriate lighting techniques are utilized. This application note discusses considerations when selecting lighting equipment and demonstrates how to utilize the Direct Drive lighting controller feature on the NI 17xx Smart Camera with LabVIEW or Vision Builder for Automated Inspection.

The National Instruments Green Engineering Technical Library contains a wide variety of resources for environmental application development techniques, example programs, and case studies.