Digital Dynamics Announces LabVIEW Support For SuperIOr Controllers

Digital Dynamics, Inc. (DDI), in partnership with AltaStream Control Systems, Inc., has announced the addition of SuperIOr Controller device drivers to interface with the LabVIEW graphical programming measurement and simulation software.

LabVIEW (short for Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench) is a system-design platform and development environment for a visual programming language. LabVIEW’s graphical approach allows non-programmers to build test and measurement programs by dragging and dropping virtual representations of lab equipment and other gear.

LabVIEW is a powerful extension to the SuperIOr Controller system and is especially useful in the early stages of tool development, allowing the system engineer to prototype and test process controls before committing to the final design. DDI’s customers have used LabVIEW to prototype new process control sequences in R&D process chambers, and to conduct process experimentation.

The SuperIOr Controller is a distributed Input/Output (I/O) control system for embedded OEM machine control applications, consisting of a Master Controller module (MCM) providing precise coordination of as many as 16 configurable Remote I/O Modules (RIMs). The use of distributed RIMs drastically reduces the complexity of cables needed to connect to sensors and actuators compared to a centralized I/O control system. Moreover, since signals can be routed to any type of connector, standard CAT6 cables and interconnects can be used, with significant cost savings in both materials and labor.

The SuperIOr Controller handles high-speed processing such as sequence automation and data monitoring while ensuring system safety integrity through its redundant hardware interlocks. Interlocks are electronically configured in dual redundant PROMs. Up to 1000 mixed-signal inputs and outputs can be simultaneously monitored at scan rates up to 8 kHz.

The distributed RIMs can be tailored to machine requirements using a broad family of plug-in I/O cards, just like PLC modules only much smaller. Cards include digital I/O, analog I/O, thermocouples and bi-directional UART communications, adding to the overall versatility of the SuperIOr Controller.