Reconfigurable measurement system utilizing a programmable hardware element and fixed hardware resources

[0051] In one embodiment, the measurement module may be in the form of a measurement cartridge and the RIO unit in the form of a RIO cartridge chassis or carrier which is operable to receive one or more of the measurement cartridges. Thus, the RIO may host a plurality of measurement cartridges, each of which may provide measurement and / or control functionality for a measurement or control operation or task. The RIO may be operable to communicate with each measurement cartridge (i.e., module) and be programmed or configured (e.g., by the computer system) to implement the respective interface of each measurement cartridge. In this manner a suite of sensors may be fielded, each of which feeds signals to a respective measurement cartridge which in turn communicates through a respective interface (protocol) with the RIO cartridge carrier. The RIO cartridge carrier (i.e., the RIO) may in turn couple to a computer system. Thus, the RIO device may support a heterogeneous plurality of interfaces without having to include a heterogeneous set of interface hardware components.

[0075] Thus, the use of RIO devices in combination with a variety of platforms and computer systems provides a broad range of approaches for efficient and flexible measurement systems, including established platforms such as PCI / PXI and FieldPoint, USB / Ethernet devices, and small networked measurement nodes (e.g., smart sensors) for highly distributed measurement systems. Additionally, the adaptive (i.e., programmable) aspect of RIO systems in conjunction with measurement modules provides measurement and control solutions which may more accurately and efficiently match the measurement and control requirements of users. Finally, the use of graphical programs to configure the RIO hardware may greatly simply the configuration process.

Often, the field signals may comprise high common-mode voltages, ground loops, or voltage spikes that often occur in industrial or research environments which could damage the computer system.

In general, compile times for generating a hardware configuration program for an FPGA may take a lengthy time, e.g., many hours.

When targeting the hardware (i.e., the programmable hardware element) these I / O primitives (possibly including standard LabVIEW primitives) may be converted into a hardware representation, such as an FPGA program file, as described above, and may take considerable time to compile.

Therefore, the user may debug most functional issues related to the application or system, and so may concentrate primarily on timing issues after performing a full compilation.