Chapter 1 Introduction
© National Instruments Corporation 1-5 NI PXI-7831R User Manual
❑The following documents are included on the NI Device Drivers CD
and are also available at ni.com/manuals (optional):
– LabVIEW FPGA Module Release Notes
– LabVIEW FPGA Module User Manual
–LabVIEW Real-Time Module User Manual
– Where to Start with the NI PXI-7831R
❑The LabVIEW Help, which is available by selecting Help»VI,
Function, & How-To Help from LabVIEW.
Overview of Reconfigurable I/O
This section introduces the concept of RIO and describes how to use
the reconfigurable FPGA to build high-level functions in hardware.
Refer to Chapter 2, Hardware Overview of theNI PXI-7831R, for
descriptions of the physical I/O resources available on the NI PXI-7831R.

Reconfigurable I/O Concept

The NIPXI-783 1R device is based on a reconfigurable FPGA core
surrounded by fixed I/O resources. The behavior of the reconfigurable core
can be configured to better match the requirements of the measurement and
control system. The behavior can be fully user defined and implemented as
a VI, creating an application-specific I/O device. In contrast, a traditional
data acquisition (DAQ) device uses a fixed core with predetermined
functionality.

Flexible Functionality

Flexible functionality allows the RIO device to match individual
application requirements and to mimic the functionality of fixed I/O
devices, including I/O combinations not available in standard products. For
example, you can configure a RIO device in one application for three 32-bit
quadrature decoders and then reconfigure the RIO device in another
application for eight 16-bit event counters.
In timing and triggering applications, the flexible functionality of the RIO
device makes it an ideal complement to applications based on the RT
module, such as control and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations. For
example, you can configure the RIO device for a single timed loop in one
application and then reconfigure the device in another application for four
independent timed loops with separate I/O resources.