National Instruments Improves Instrument Control With LabVIEW SignalExpress

NEWS RELEASE – April 4, 2007 – National Instruments recently announced NI LabVIEW SignalExpress, an extension of the popular LabVIEW graphical system design platform, for acquiring, analyzing and presenting data without programming. LabVIEW SignalExpress is interactive measurement software that improves productivity with an intuitive drag-and-drop environment to manage measurements and signals from more than 400 stand-alone and modular instruments. LabVIEW SignalExpress also eliminates tedious off-line analysis with real-time analysis, which engineers can accomplish while acquiring data. They also can publish measurement and analysis results in customized reports.

Engineers using LabVIEW SignalExpress benefit from having an “always-on” instrument while retaining the power and flexibility of a software-based virtual instrumentation solution. For example, from within one software interface, engineers can communicate and control both stand-alone and PC-based instruments. They also can rapidly perform measurements and limit time. Additionally, with enhanced analysis capabilities, engineers can view relevant results and reduce the probability of retaking measurements. Engineers can further automate and extend their applications with the LabVIEW graphical environment because LabVIEW SignalExpress automatically generates LabVIEW code from existing projects. LabVIEW SignalExpress also makes the platform more accessible for third-party hardware users.

“Our customers are continually seeking simpler and more efficient ways to conduct PC-based measurement analysis on signal data captured from the latest Tektronix oscilloscopes,” said Bob Bluhm, vice president of value-based oscilloscopes at Tektronix. “Using LabVIEW SignalExpress with plug-and-play USB connectivity, our customers can easily synchronize data and control their Tektronix DPO4000 oscilloscope from a familiar PC-based environment and improve their measurement productivity.”

LabVIEW SignalExpress also provides improved data-logging capabilities for identifying and retrieving important information in the data. LabVIEW SignalExpress logs measurements to disk using the technical data management streaming (TDMS) file format. Engineers can access TDMS files in all National Instruments software products as well as third-party applications. With LabVIEW SignalExpress, engineers can acquire live measurements, log their data to a disk and easily export the data to a spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel.

LabVIEW SignalExpress also provides data-logging features such as alarm monitoring and condition logging. In addition, because the software is based on LabVIEW Express technology, engineers can easily generate LabVIEW graphical programming code to extend their applications with original user interfaces or add custom logic for more advanced data-logging applications.

Readers can view LabVIEW SignalExpress demonstrations and get technical information by visiting www.ni.com/signalexpress. Readers also can download LabVIEW SignalExpress LE, a limited version of the software, for free by visiting www.ni.com/signalexpresseval.

About National Instruments
National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 25,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 10 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 4,000 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. For the past eight years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.

Pricing and Contact Information

NI LabVIEW SignalExpress Contact Sales: www.ni.com/contact
Priced from $699; €720; ¥98,000 E-mail: info@ni.com
Web: www.ni.com/signalexpress