Can LabVIEW Embedded be used to programme the DK-LM3S9B96 MDK?

[vitoi]

Hi,

Can LabVIEW Embedded be used to programme the Texas Instruments DK-LM3S9B96 Microcontroller Development Kit? I ask this question since I've been looking for a more powerful microcontroller than the two Tier 1 devices that I've noticed. 

What lead me to believe that the LM3S9B96 can be programmed using LabVIEW is that the product brochure (http://www.ti.com/lit/ml/spmt158e/spmt158e.pdf) mentions "The LM3S9B96 development board is also a useful development vehicle for systems programmed using tools such as Microsft's .NET Micro Framework and Embedded LabVIEW from National Instruments."

Is the Tier 1 port available from TI or NI?

Regards,

Vito

[Brian_A]

Hi Vito,

The LM3S9B96 can be used with the LabVIEW Embedded module. A full list of supported procesors can be found here: Device Database. 

However, it is only a Tier 2 device meaning that you will have to go through the porting process. 

The following KnowledgeBase articles may also be usefull if you decide to port to the device.

Porting LabVIEW to a Tier 2 Texas Instruments Stellaris Microcontroller. 

Cheers,

<Brian A | Applications Engineering | National Instruments> 

[vitoi]

Has anyone on the planet, outside of NI, done a Tier 2 board to Tier 1 board port? That is, converted a Tier 2 board to have all the features, including peripheral drivers, the same as the two NI done Tier 1 boards. If not, all Tier 2 devices effectively do not exist for LabVIEW programming. They are more of a never-to-be-used wish list.

I don't think anyone has created a Tier 1 board outside NI. Here are my reasons:

1) There is no entry in any forum about someone discussing such an activity, let alone actually doing it.

2) Doing such a port requires good C knowledge. Most C programmers would go on to write their application microcontroller code in C (or C++ or C#) and extract all the available processor resources (rather than losing 80% of the CPU resources by programming in LabVIEW).

3) There are very few LabVIEW Embedded for ARM active programmers. When you multiply the number of active users by the probability of anyone of them doing a full Tier 1 port, the result is about zero.

I’m considering doing a Tier 1 port for the LM3S9B96 MDK ,which I estimate would take me about 3 to 4 months. I could then write my application code in LabVIEW in about 1 month. Or, having spent all that time in C, I could just do the job in C in about 2 months. So it's 4.5 months in LabVIEW or 2 months in C. So much for LabVIEW being a rapid development environment. The added advantage of programming in C is that I will get the full 100 DMIPS of the processor, rather than 20 DMIPS in LabVIEW.

So, programming in LabVIEW will take me longer and result in a lower performance application. There is no tradeoff here. Now, if NI introduced a LM3S9B96 MDK Tier 1 offering I can tradeoff 1 month of development with lower processing performance against 2 months of development effort with higher performance. Now there is a tradeoff and I can put my thinking cap on.

Given that the LM3S9B96 MDK product brochure mentions it can be LabVIEW Embedded, would NI consider making it a Tier 1 board. It's been over 5 years since the only two Tier 1 board have been introduced and a new Tier 1 board is overdue and would be useful for NI customers. To me, it makes more sense for NI to make a Tier 1 port once than expect individual customers to do it.