Mike Trimborn
National Instruments

Implementing DSP algorithms is a significant factor in embedded system design. Silicon designs are becoming more complex as vendors add DSP functionality to existing microprocessor designs and integrate different types of silicon components. For example, the Xilinx VirtexII Pro blends a Xilinx FPGA fabric with a PowerPC core. As silicon architectures become more complex, code size grows. Embedded system design tools are not evolving as fast as the silicon, which creates a bottleneck in embedded design.

LabVIEW, which is a graphical development language, is the market leader in the development of data acquisition and instrument control software. This paper discusses how graphical programming tools, such as LabVIEW, can provide productivity benefits in embedded design in the same way LabVIEW increased productivity for automated test applications.