NI Delivers Five New Low-Cost Digital and Analog Data Acquisition Devices; Boards Offer NI-DAQmx Software Technology, Set New Price/Performance Standard.

Business Editors/Science Writers/High-Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 2003

National Instruments (Nasdaq:NATI) today announced five new low-cost digital input/output (DIO) and analog output (AO) boards that offer an affordable and reliable I/O solution and set a new price point for data acquisition and control. Starting at just $295, these new boards deliver NI-DAQmx software technology as well as superior ease-of-use and performance at a low cost for industrial automation and control, test and measurement, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) applications. The new group of boards includes:

-- NI PCI-6509: industrial 96-channel, 5 V/TTL, bidirectional

digital input/output

-- NI PCI-6514: isolated industrial 32 digital input, 32 source

digital output

-- NI PCI-6515: isolated industrial 32 digital input, 32 sink

digital output

-- NI PCI-6722: 8-channel, 13-bit simultaneous voltage output

-- NI PCI-6723: 32-channel, 13-bit simultaneous voltage output

With these new boards, engineers can take advantage of innovative NI-DAQmx software technology that includes automatic code generation for creating applications in NI LabVIEW, C, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and C#. Engineers also can take measurements quickly by using the NI DAQ Assistant feature to guide them to fast, accurate input/output without requiring any programming. NI-DAQmx also offers multithreading streaming technology that delivers up to 100 times faster I/O throughput for concurrent operations and high-channel-count systems, as well as other advanced features including automatic timing, triggering and synchronization.

The NI PCI-6509, NI PCI-6514 and NI PCI-6515 low-cost digital I/O boards deliver a high-reliability, industrial feature set that includes programmable power-up states, programmable input filters, digital I/O watchdogs, isolation and change detection. These features are especially valuable for mission-critical industrial control and test and measurement applications. Engineers can use programmable power-up states on each digital I/O device to configure the initial digital state in software, which ensures safe operation when controlling industrial actuators such as pumps, valves, motors and relays. Programmable input filters eliminate noise on inputs, remove glitches and spikes, and provide debouncing for digital switches and relays. Digital I/O watchdogs protect against a variety of fault conditions such as computer and application crashes.

Using the new NI PCI-6722 and NI PCI-6723 high-channel-density voltage output boards, engineers and scientists can spend less money per channel to integrate full-featured AO into their control and test systems. These AO boards lower cost-per-channel to just $31, a 70 percent reduction compared to boards with similar advanced features such as waveform generation. These AO boards deliver 13-bit static or low-speed waveform generation and are capable of multichannel simultaneous updates needed in many control and simulation applications. To achieve the flexibility many applications require, these AO boards contain programmable function input (PFI) lines for importing external clocks or triggers, and a RTSI bus to synchronize the boards with complementary PCI products such as analog input, machine vision, motion controllers or controller area network (CAN).

With these new low-cost boards, NI continues to set the data acquisition standard for price and performance. As a market leader for data acquisition in measurement and control, NI is committed to developing state-of-the-art data acquisition technology and offering a complete low-cost data acquisition solution with superior accuracy, reliability, software productivity and support.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation -- a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists approach measurement and automation. Leveraging the PC and its related technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs for customers worldwide through easy-to-integrate software, such as the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment, and modular hardware, such as PXI modules for data acquisition, instrument control and machine vision. Readers may obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department at 512-683-5090, by sending e-mail to [e-mail] or on the Web at www.ni.com/nati.

Pricing and Contact Information

PCI-6509, PCI-6514, PCI-6515, PCI-6722, PCI-6723
Priced from $295
Web: www.ni.com/dataacquisition

11500 N Mopac Expwy, Austin, Texas 78759-3504
Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, NI-DAQ, ni.com and RTSI are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.