National Instruments Corporation

Neil S Feiereisel

Brent C Schwan

Craig M Conway

J Adam Kemp

Brian Keith Odom

Glen O Sescila, Iii

M Dean Brockhausen, Jr

Joseph E Peck

Robert E Dye

Stephen L Dark

Dustyn K Blasig

Rafael Castro Scorsi

Taylor L Riche

Jonathan Brumley

Mary E Fletcher

Julian G Valdez

Stephen R Loftus-Mercer

Rodger Schorr

System and method for creating a graphical program. A first replication structure may be included in a graphical program, where the first replication structure specifies replication of any graphical program code inside the first replication structure. First graphical program code may be included inside the first replication structure. An implementation of the graphical program may be automatically generated, including generating multiple instances of an implementation of the first graphical program code within the implementation of the graphical program. Executing the graphical program may include executing the multiple instances, e.g., concurrently and/or serially.

Replication structure in a graphical programming language

A graphical program execution environment that facilitates communication between a producer program and a consumer program is disclosed. The producer program may store data in a memory block allocated by the producer program. A graphical program may communicate with the producer program to obtain a reference to the memory block. The graphical program may asynchronously pass the reference to the consumer program, e.g., may pass the reference without blocking or waiting while the consumer program accesses the data in the memory block. After the consumer program is finished accessing the data, the consumer program may asynchronously notify the graphical program execution environment to release the memory block. The graphical program execution environment may then notify the producer program that the block of memory is no longer in use so that the producer program can de-allocate or re-use the memory block.

Graphical programming system for data sharing between programs via a memory buffer

A system and method for enabling a graphical program to natively access an external memory buffer are disclosed. The graphical program may execute within a graphical program execution environment, and the external memory buffer may be allocated by another program that executes externally from the graphical program and the graphical program execution environment. The graphical program may be executed concurrently with a producer program that stores data in the memory buffer, and/or with a consumer program that reads and uses the data from the memory buffer. The memory buffer may be located within a region of memory allocated by the producer program, by the consumer program, or by another program that executes externally from the graphical program and the graphical program execution environment, such as a memory manager program.

Graphical programming system with native access to external memory buffers

Graphical programming system enabling data sharing from a producer to a consumer via a memory buffer

Provided in some embodiment is a computer system, including a first peripheral device, having a first external data input, a first peripheral storage device to store the measurement data, a first peripheral device output to couple to a system interconnect of the computer system. The first peripheral device capable of receiving measurement data via the external data input the first peripheral device capable of transferring at least a portion of the measurement data to a second peripheral device of the computer system via the system interconnect, and where the second peripheral device is capable of processing at least a portion of the measurement data transferred to the second peripheral device.

Peripheral devices integrated into a processing chain

Provided is a method of streaming transfer of data between a plurality of devices of a computer system. The method includes providing data to be sent from a source device to a target device and includes receiving, at the source device, one or more transfer credits from the target device. A transfer credit may be indicative of an amount of data that the target device is authorizing to be sent to the target device. The method also includes determining whether or not an accumulated transfer credit value satisfies a threshold value. If the accumulated transfer credit value satisfies the threshold value, the source device sends data to the target device and modifies the accumulated transfer credit value based on a quantity of data sent. If the accumulated transfer credit value does not satisfy the threshold value the source device does not send data to the target device.

Data movement system and method

In one embodiment, a system comprises a delay determining unit that may be operable to determine a relative delay between the first signal provided by the first source and the second signal provided by the second source, based upon a travel path of the first signal and a travel path of the second signal. In addition, a delay circuit, comprised within the waveform generator, may be configured to be programmed to delay output of the first signal to output the first signal at a predetermined position with respect to output of the second signal, based on the determined relative delay. More specifically, in one embodiment, the delay circuit may be configured to be automatically programmed to add the relative delay to the output of the first signal to automatically align the output of the first signal with respect to the output of the second signal.

Automatic delays for alignment of signals

A motion control system and method are disclosed which provide improved pulse placement for smoother operation of a motion device such as a stepper motor. A placement of pulses may be determined for each of a plurality of time intervals such that the pulses are placed evenly across the plurality of time intervals, wherein the quantity of pulses in each of the time intervals is variable. The pulses may be generated and sent to the motion device to move the object to the desired position. A delay may be used to place each pulse at an arbitrary location within one of the time intervals. Where the desired step rate is fractional, time may be &ldquo;borrowed&rdquo; for one loop iteration from other loop iterations. In one embodiment, the step rate may be changed from one loop period to the next.

Motion control system and method which includes improved pulse placement for smoother operation

An improved software architecture for data acquisition (DAQ) driver level software executing in a DAQ system. The DAQ driver level software receives calls from the DAQ user application and is executable to control the DAQ device. The DAQ driver level software includes one or more interpreters which receives calls from the DAQ user application. Each of the interpreters performs functionality which is common for a plurality of DAQ devices, and each of the interpreters is preferably useable for a plurality of different DAQ devices. The DAQ driver level software also includes a plurality of mini-driver primitives which each perform a portion of controlling the DAQ device, i.e., each controls a hardware resource of the DAQ device. In the preferred embodiment, each of the mini-driver primitives present the same application programming interface. The present invention thus comprises an improved architecture for DAQ driver level software. The software architecture of the present invention thus provides much greater code reuse and simplification of individual board drivers.

Growing community of inventors

Cedar Park, TX, United States of America

Neil S Feiereisel