Speak Fluent "ModBus"

GRENOBLE, FRANCE -- May 20, 2003 -- SAPHIR, a National Instruments Alliance Program member, today announced the immediate availability of ModBusVIEW for NI LabVIEW 7 Express. The ModBusVIEW driver supports the very popular and widespread ModBus protocol on all platforms running LabVIEW.

ModBus protocol, introduced by Modicon in 1979 with the first intelligent PLC, is a common spoken messaging structure between industrial devices. Ten years ago, SAPHIR took on the challenge of sharing tasks and data between a PLC network and LabVIEW supervisory interface and developed ModBusVIEW, starting with LabVIEW 3. Ever since, SAPHIR has maintained and distributed the software as a ModBus driver for every LabVIEW version.

Coding and decoding ASCII and RTU frames, integrity frame control, as well as VISA serial port handling are all taken care of by ModBusVIEW, without user effort. With LabVIEW 7 Express, users can easily add their computer as the master or as a regular slave to a ModBus/JBus network. The standard RS232 serial port of the computer can be adapted as needed by a RS422 or RS485 converter. The software architecture allows for simultaneous operation of several ModBus/JBus connections, using independent serial ports of the computer.

"Throughout our long-standing relationship, we have been able to rely on SAPHIR to bring NI software and hardware to automation in the factory floor," said Norma Dorst, National Instruments Software Senior Group Product Manager. "We are excited to see how SAPHIR will combine the popular PLC protocol with the ease of use and enhanced measurement capabilities of LabVIEW 7 Express to help automation engineers create complex monitoring solutions."

Including a ModBusVIEW exchange in an application comes down to the assembly in logical order of the ModBus requests. The strict separation of the upper and lower layers of the ModBusVIEW communications model allows for tailoring of the upper layers, which are often constructor specific.

You can download a ModBusVIEW demo version from:
www.saphir.fr

About SAPHIR
At its foundation in 1989, SAPHIR was a pioneer in using micro computers in the instrumentation field. At that time, the company provided turn-key solutions based on the LabVIEW environment running on the Apple Macintosh Operating System.

Ever since, the company has worked on the edge of emerging technologies, while broadening its scope to the PC/Windows and Linux platforms in the field of industrial automation. SAPHIR's staff has increased to 10 engineers and several external consultants.

For more information, contact:
   Jean-Michel CHALONS Manager
   SAPHIR
   Rue du Mail
   F-38530 BARRAUX FRANCE
   Std : (+33/0) 438 92 15 50
   Dir : (+33/0) 438 92 15 52
   Fax : (+33/0) 476 45 12 55
   mailto: jmc@saphir.fr
   Web : http://www.saphir.fr

About National Instruments
National Instruments (http://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. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 3,000 employees and direct operations in 40 countries. In 2002, the company sold products to more than 25,000 different companies in more than 80 countries around the world. For the past four consecutive years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.

Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

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