Programming NI FPGA-Based Hardware Devices
To program an FPGA bitfile for NI FPGA-based devices (e.g. R-Series modules), you must use the LabVIEW development environment along with the LabVIEW FPGA Module on a Windows system. It is not currently possible to program FPGA bitfiles for NI FPGA-based devices from the LabVIEW development on Linux.
Once you have generated an FPGA bitfile, you can download it to a NI FPGA device installed in a Linux system. You do this from a host application written in C; continue reading for instructions on how to do this.
Installing the NI-RIO Driver and FPGA Interface C API Software and NI-RIO Driver on Your Windows Development Machine
After programming a bitfile for your FPGA-based device, you will need to generate a custom C API on your Windows development machine based on the inputs and outputs to your FPGA application.
To do this, you need two pieces of software on your Windows development machine:
Installing the NI-RIO Driver on Your Linux System
To communicate with your NI FPGA-based device from applications on Linux, you need to install the NI-RIO driver on your Linux system. This driver is currently supported with the following distributions:
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x i386
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x x86_64
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x i386
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x x86_64
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Scientific Linux 5.x i386
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Scientific Linux 5.x x86_64
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Scientific Linux 6.x i386
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Scientific Linux 6.x x86_64
You can download and install the NI-RIO 4.1.0 driver for Linux from ni.com/updates. Installation instructions are provided in the README.txt file noted on the download page.
Using the FPGA Interface C API to Communicate with NI FPGA-Based Devices from C Applications on Linux
A tutorial is available to help guide you through the process of generating a C interface to your LabVIEW FPGA application, and then using that interface in your C application on Linux. Essentially, you will take the following steps:
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Transfer your compiled LabVIEW FPGA bitfile from your Windows development machine to your Linux system
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Generate a custom C API for your LabVIEW FPGA application from the LabVIEW development environment on your Windows machine
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Develop a C host application for your Linux system that uses the custom C API that you generated in step 2. Your host application will connect to the NI FPGA-based device, download your bitfile from step 1, and then send and receive data as needed.
To read the detailed tutorial, visit the document: Building an R Series FPGA Interface Host Application in C . Note that the FPGA Interface C API can be used to generate custom C APIs for use on Windows or Linux. Therefore, some Windows examples given in the tutorial may need to be slightly adjusted when developing a Linux host application.
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