National Instruments R Series boards for USB

National Instruments has announced the four latest R Series boards (USB-7855R, USB-7856R, USB-7855R OEM and USB-7856R OEM) with USB connectivity, which help engineers add FPGA technology to any PC-based system.

The products are based on LabVIEW RIO architecture, an integral part of the NI graphical system design platform. A modern approach to designing, prototyping and deploying embedded monitoring and control systems, graphical system design combines the open NI LabVIEW graphical programming environment with commercial off-the-shelf hardware to simplify development, which results in high-quality designs with the ability to incorporate custom design.

Using the USB R Series devices, engineers and scientists can create customisable measurement and control systems using standard PC technology. They are suitable for high-performance medical, life science and semiconductor machines.

The product features Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA, allowing users to implement tasks like custom timing and triggering, synchronisation, multirate sampling, high-speed control and onboard signal processing. Improved I/O allows the use of analog input and analog output rates of up to 1 MHz for closed-loop control tasks, as well as digital I/O (DIO) rates of up to 80 MHz.

Selectable logic levels from 1.2 to 3.3 V mean users can adjust DIO levels to meet specific application requirements, and selectable gain for analog input ranges allows for more resolution at lower voltage ranges. OEM options are available so users can get the same power in a board-only form factor with the flexibility to create their own I/O interface.