Virtual Instrumentation Delivers 10X Increase in Efficiency Over Traditional Methods for Power Monitoring; Texas Instruments Power Optimization DSP Starter Kit Delivers Power Monitoring Based on NI LabVIEW Software and USB Hardware.

AUSTIN, Texas -- National Instruments (Nasdaq:NATI) today announced its collaboration with Texas Instruments and Spectrum Digital in the development of the new TI C55X Power Optimization DSP Starter Kit (DSK), the industry's first DSP design tool to offer designers incorporated test and measurement functionality. The new kit incorporates virtual instrumentation -- combining National Instruments USB-based measurement hardware with a power monitoring application based on NI LabVIEW software -- to deliver a complete set of power estimation and measurement tools for accurately planning, analyzing, managing and optimizing real-time power consumption. It offers a 10 times increase in efficiency over traditional methods for power monitoring, which entail purchasing a DSP and expensive power monitoring hardware separately.

"By incorporating National Instruments measurement capabilities into this DSK, we offer our customers a significant value-add over other DSP development tools on the market," said John Dixon, Texas Instruments low-power DSP marketing manager. "In addition to saving weeks to months in the development cycles, the DSK offers visibility into power consumption that helps OEMs achieve greater power efficiency than ever before, giving their products a clear competitive edge over less efficient designs."

Because the new TI C55X Power Optimization DSK includes built-in NI software and hardware, designers now can more easily monitor power at various stages in the DSP chip operation. Understanding a design's power consumption is not only especially important for engineers developing battery-powered devices -- such as digital music players, portable medical equipment and other devices with limited power -- but is also significant for optimizing energy efficiency in AC-powered designs.

In addition to built-in power monitoring hardware and ready-to-run monitoring software, the TI C55X Power Optimization DSK includes power scaling libraries as part of the TI Code Composer Studio(TM) and a daughtercard interface for features such as screen and fingerprint ID. Designers also can set triggers in the TI Code Composer Studio that can be read by the Power Monitor application based on LabVIEW to analyze power consumption during a specific code segment. The DSK is built on a robust C5509A-based target board complete with onboard emulation and board support libraries from Spectrum Digital. It also provides expansion connectors for custom user logic along with audio input and outputs via an TLV320AIC23B codec.

"National Instruments is excited to provide embedded developers a comprehensive solution for monitoring power consumption on their designs at a great value," said Kristi Hobbs, NI data acquisition product manager. "This combined prototyping and test tool is a first for the industry and raises the bar for future embedded tools."

NI offers additional software and hardware options for designers needing more advanced power-monitoring capabilities with increased accuracy or varied analysis capabilities, including high-performance digital multimeters (DMMs) or cost-effective, modular NI SCC signal conditioning systems that engineers can combine with NI PC-based data acquisition devices. NI also offers powerful software for power monitoring such as VI Logger data-logging software and SignalExpress interactive measurement software.

About NI Data Acquisition

By integrating commercially available silicon and bus technologies with innovative designs, NI data acquisition (DAQ) products continue to improve measurement speed and accuracy while reducing cost for engineers and scientists. NI data acquisition devices are available on the most widely used buses, including PXI, PCI, PCI Express and USB, and work with the industry's most popular operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Readers can learn more about the latest NI data acquisition hardware and software products and technologies at www.ni.com/daq.

About National Instruments

For 30 years, National Instruments (www.ni.com) has been a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation -- a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists in industry, government and academia approach measurement and automation. Leveraging PCs and commercial technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs for test, control and design applications through easy-to-integrate software, such as NI LabVIEW, and modular measurement and control hardware for PXI, PCI, PCI Express, USB and Ethernet. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 3,800 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. For the past seven years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling 512-683-5090, e-mailing [e-mail] or visiting www.ni.com/nati.

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