Developing Data Acquisition Systems on the Mac with Virtualization Technology
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NI LabVIEW 1.0 debuted on the Macintosh more than 20 years ago. Today, with LabVIEW and the NI-DAQmx Base hardware driver, Mac users can create data acquisition (DAQ) applications using PCI, PCI Express, PXI, and USB devices. Additionally, with serial and NI-VISA driver support for LabVIEW, Mac users can create instrument control applications natively on Mac OS X.
NI supports many products on Mac OS X. Virtualization provides Mac users with greater access to drivers and hardware previously available only on Windows.
Virtualization, a technology that allows a single PC to simultaneously run multiple OSs, now promises Mac users greater access to drivers and hardware previously available only on Windows. While virtualization does not signal a change in Mac support from NI, it does represent an avenue for Mac enthusiasts to take advantage of hardware currently not natively supported on Mac OS X.
Two of the primary virtualization products, VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop, have gained popularity and received wide media coverage, including user comments on the NI discussion forums at forums.ni.com. Based on Mac user requests, NI R&D engineers have performed initial product testing on these “virtual machines,” and they have seen nearly full functionality from the following NI products:
- NI-DAQmx 8.5
- USB DAQ devices
- NI FieldPoint devices
This article first appeared in the Q4 2007 issue of Instrumentation Newsletter.
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