FPGA Programming Using LabVIEW - Hands-On Workshop

by Adriaan Rijllart

Tuesday 14 Jan 2025, 14:00 → Wednesday 15 Jan 2025, 17:00 Europe/Zurich

3179 (CERN)

NOTE: The workshop will be held at CERN and remote participation is not possible, because of the hardware involved.

 

What is this for? 

This 2 x 3h workshop focuses on the use of LabVIEW and FPGAs for scientific purposes. No prior knowledge is assumed. The workshop is aimed at scientists, engineers and students located at CERN.

What will you learn?

You will learn the basics of a graphical programming language called LabVIEW and how to use it to program an FPGA and ARM processor (Zynq chip) inside a myRIO (Reconfigurable Input Output) device. You will learn that FPGA programming is not that complicated and not that different from programming a standard CPU when using LabVIEW.

Why is it interesting?

LabVIEW allows rapid prototyping, rapid adaptation to new requirements and making robust systems in combination with industrial hardware. It avoids many of the difficulties to program an FPGA, for instance to define the parallelism and synchronisation, and the need to learn special languages, such as VHDL, Vivado and Verilog. 

How is it different from e.g. Python or C?

LabVIEW is data driven (and not command driven), which enables parallel execution. This is of particular interest for FPGA programming. Objects (functions) are connected with wires (data) to define the algorithms, in analogy to a schematic diagram of an electronic circuit or a block diagram of a system.

Who uses it?

SpaceX for their launch pad software for the Falcon rocket and Dragon spacecraft. Microsoft to test their Xbox controllers. Foxconn for their iPhone assembly lines in China. Duke Energy for monitoring their electrical networks in the US. These are just a few examples, there are many others, more than 35000 companies use LabVIEW. Also at CERN, the LHC collimator control system and the AD/LEIR kicker control for instance.

Attendance

Each workshop is limited to 10 attendees. A laptop with all required software will be provided, together with a myRIO FPGA module. Like best things at CERN, it is free of charge.

The dates are as follows, and workshops are filled in the order of registrations:

Workshop: January 14. and 15., each day from 14.00-17.00

The workshops will be run by Adriaan Rijllart.