Labview Real-time Processor support

[JasonX]

I am planning on using a Desktop PC as a Real-Time Target and wanted to know if Labview Real-Time supported Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron processors.

I was told by a coworker that it didn't support 64-bit processors but noticed that the knowledge base indicated support for AMD Athlon 64. Does this mean that it just supports the desktop processors or the server processors as well?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jason

[Thaison_V]

Hi Jason,

I hope you're doing well.  I am assuming you were looking at this [broken link removed; article no longer available] KnowledgeBase.  Although the Athlon 64 processors are supported, the Xeon processor is not officially supported and tested for the Real-Time operating system, so we cannot guarantee that it will work.  Perhaps some other users have tried this and might have some insight, but we cannot say for certain that it will run the same as a 32-bit processor.

Thaison V
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[JasonX]

Thanks for the quick reply Thaison. Yes that was the knowledgebase that I am using as a guideline for our RT Target. In that case, it looks like we'll end up going with a Pentium 4 desktop chip.

[JasonX]

A few more questions have come up. I'm trying to get all the compatibility conflicts figured out before ordering any hardware.

Is there going to be any problem running multiple ethernet cards on a RT Target? We're going to need four 100base-T ports and one 1000base-T port for the server so likely we'll be adding 5 ethernet PCI cards to the computer.

Also I'm trying to find out what network chipsets will work with both Phar Lap ETS and Labview RT on a desktop PC. I know that LV-RT supports the following:

• NI-PCI-8232 (www.NI.com’s Gigabit Ethernet PCI NIC)
• Intel 82540 (Gigabit Ethernet; PCI)
• Intel 82559 (Fast Ethernet; PCI)
• Intel 82558 (Fast Ethernet; PCI)
• Intel 82550 (Fast Ethernet; PCI)
• Broadcom 5751 (Gigabit Ethernet; PCI-Express)

However when I contacted Ardence to see if ETS will work with them I received this reply:

"Please contact National Instruments for a list of Network cards that Lab View supports.

The reason that it is important to contact National Instruments is that they have the ability to include/exclude the network drivers that Ardence provides and they have the ability to write their own drivers."

Message Edited by JasonX on 04-10-2006 09:37 AM

[JasonX]

ttt

[Doug M]

Jason,
You can use multiple ethernet adapters. I'm not sure why you would want to use 5 different ethernet adapters, unless you need isolation for some type of security, as all adapters must be on different subnets.  Also make sure that the motherboard you select has a BIOS that includes PCI BIOS support, or the motherboard will not work.  This is often difficult to find out from a BIOS spec sheet, but it is necessary for the board to work as a real-time target.

Best Regards,
Doug Mumford
Applications Engineer
National Instruments