March 2018
This file contains important information about the LabVIEW FPGA Module, including system requirements, installation instructions, upgrade and compatibility issues, new features, and known issues, and a partial list of bugs fixed for this release.
FPGA Module System Requirements
FPGA Compile Farm Server System Requirements
Product Security and Critical Updates
Upgrade and Compatibility Issues
Automating the Installation of NI Products
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1
With the LabVIEW FPGA Module, you can create VIs that run on NI FPGA targets, such as Reconfigurable I/O (RIO) devices. The FPGA Module helps you design complex systems by providing a highly-integrated development environment, a large ecosystem of IP libraries, a high-fidelity simulator, and debugging features. The FPGA Module also includes FPGA IP Builder and the FPGA Compile Farm Server. You can use FPGA IP Builder to efficiently implement your LabVIEW algorithms for FPGA targets and to generate FPGA code that meets specific performance requirements. FPGA IP Builder supports only a subset of FPGA targets. Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code exvxfe for a list of supported targets. You can use the FPGA Compile Farm Server to offload compiles to dedicated computers.
The development computer is a PC or NI PXI/PXI Express system on which you install LabVIEW and the FPGA Module. You can also install the Xilinx compilation tools on your development computer to compile LabVIEW FPGA VIs locally. However, if the FPGA design or target requires more than 2 GB of memory, NI recommends you install the Xilinx compilation tools on a separate computer. This computer is referred to as the remote compile worker.
Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code XilinxCompileTools for more information about the NI hardware supported by each Xilinx compilation tool.
The development computer must meet the following system requirements:
Note
1 Memory requirements vary according to both the FPGA target and the FPGA VI you create for that target.
2 You must use a 64-bit OS to address 4 GB of RAM.
3 NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates.
4 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1, Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.
Refer to the LabVIEW Readme for additional system requirements and supported operating systems for LabVIEW 2018.
If you install the FPGA Compile Farm Server on a separate computer, you can configure that computer to be a remote compile farm server. If you install the Xilinx compilation tools on a separate computer, you can configure that computer to be a remote compile worker.
Refer to the Setting Up a Remote Compile Farm Server or Compile Worker section of this document for information about setting up and using a local or remote compile farm server or compile worker. Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code XilinxCompileTools for more information about the NI hardware supported by each Xilinx compilation tool.
You can use either a Windows or Linux computer as a compile worker. Refer to the Xilinx Compilation Tools Readme for information about the minimum system requirements.
The remote compile farm server must meet the following minimum system requirements:
Note In 2016 the FPGA Compile Farm Server dropped support for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and installations of Windows 7 without any service packs. The LabVIEW 2018 FPGA Compile Farm Server will not install or run on an unsupported OS.
1 NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates.
2 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1, Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.
Note The FPGA Compile Farm Server supports the LabVIEW 2010 FPGA Module or later.
This section provides information about installing the FPGA Module and related components.
Note If you are upgrading from a previous version of LabVIEW, you must install the LabVIEW 2018 FPGA Module before mass-compiling existing FPGA VIs. Otherwise, some FPGA-specific VIs might have mutation issues.
Complete the following steps to install LabVIEW and the FPGA Module:
In addition to installing program files and documentation in the LabVIEW directory, the installer also puts files from Xilinx in the x:\NIFPGA directory, where x is the drive on which you installed LabVIEW. The FPGA Module uses these files to compile FPGA VIs into code that runs on an FPGA target.
You can use the LabVIEW Platform media to install the FPGA Compile Farm Server to offload compiles to dedicated computer. You must install the FPGA Compile Farm Server separately on any remote machine that you want to use to manage your compilations. Also, you must install the Xilinx compilation tools on any machine that you want to use as a remote compile worker. Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code XilinxCompileTools for more information about the NI hardware supported by each Xilinx compilation tool.
NI also offers the LabVIEW FPGA Compile Cloud Service to increase the development efficiency by offloading compile jobs to multiple computers in a cloud environment. Visit ni.com/trycompilecloud for information about the LabVIEW FPGA Compile Cloud.
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from NI.
The FPGA Module (64-bit) provides access to more memory than the FPGA Module (32-bit) can provide. The FPGA Module (64-bit) is available in English only.
The FPGA Module (64-bit) supports the following NI hardware devices:
You cannot use an unsupported device with the FPGA Module (64-bit) or run example VIs that require an unsupported device in the FPGA Module (64-bit). Refer to the specific hardware documentation for more information about compatibility with the FPGA Module (64-bit).
The LabVIEW 2018 FPGA Module includes the following new features:
You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the NI website for an up-to-date list of known issues in the FPGA Module.
The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed in the FPGA Module. This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of the FPGA Module. If you have a CAR ID, you can search this list to validate that the issue has been fixed.
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 677354 | When a Case structure wired into an auto-indexing tunnel has more than 32 cases, the output array could be all zeroes |
| 677246 | Using the IP Integration Node with a VHDL file that contains extended identifiers results in compilation failure with the following error: [Synth 8-2139] illegal identifiers |
| 674053 | Using a VHDL file with an IP Integration Node that contains a generic and ends the entity declaration with "end entity" rather than "end <entity name>" results in syntax check failure |
| 673789 | If you fix errors about the Desktop Execution Node (DEN) in an FPGA VI and then run the FPGA VI in simulation mode without the DEN, the FPGA VI still throws errors about the DEN |
| 671439 | Using the Desktop Execution Node with an FPGA VI that is within a project library file (.lvlib) on an FPGA target results in Error 1055 |
| 658853 | CLIP configuration may not display all entities if one of the port names contains "begin" |
| 656074 | If you use the FPGA FIFO Read method with the Desktop Execution Node, the FPGA FIFO Read method uses the Timeout input as milliseconds instead of ticks |
| 640863 | DMA channels are not available in the LabVIEW FPGA host interface if a DMA channel of the DBL type is present |
| 629712 | A crash can occur when you add an FPGA handshake into a cluster |
If you upgrade from the LabVIEW 2016 FPGA Module or later to the LabVIEW 2018 FPGA Module, you might encounter the following compatibility issues:
If you upgrade from the LabVIEW 2015 FPGA Module or earlier to the LabVIEW 2018 FPGA Module, refer to previous versions of the LabVIEW FPGA Module readme or LabVIEW FPGA Module Release and Upgrade Notes, available on ni.com/manuals, for changes in previous versions of the FPGA Module.
Note The LabVIEW FPGA Module Release and Upgrade Notes document was deprecated from the 2016 release.
Upgrading the FPGA Module requires you to upgrade to a new version of the Xilinx compilation tools. This upgrade can change the timing or resource utilization characteristics of FPGA VIs you developed in previous versions or cause these VIs to fail to compile. NI recommends that you test all FPGA designs after upgrading.
Refer to the LabVIEW Help, accessible by selecting Help»LabVIEW Help from LabVIEW, for information about the FPGA Module.
Select Help»Find Examples from LabVIEW to launch the NI Example Finder. You can modify an example VI to fit an application, or you can copy and paste from one or more examples into a VI that you create.
You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes.
If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.6.2, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.6.2 separately before you install NI software.
For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:
Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.
When you install NI software on Microsoft Windows 8.1, you will notice a few additional tiles in the Apps view, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX), and NI Launcher. For more information about NI support for Windows 8.1, visit ni.com/windows8.
Copyright
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Third-Party Copyright Notices
The SharpZipLib_Notice.pdf file contains a third-party copyright notice for third-party components used by certain FPGA Module features. The following directory is the default installation location for the file, but the location might vary depending on the configuration of the local computer:
\National Instruments\LabVIEW <version>\FPGA\Legal\
End-User License Agreements and Third-Party Legal Notices
You can find end-user license agreements (EULAs) and third-party legal notices in the following locations after installation:
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Patents
For patents covering the NI products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the NI Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.
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