In addition to a RIO device such as a CompactRIO reconfigurable chassis, a single-board RIO device, or a PXI or PCI RIO device, you need the following software to use the FPGA Interface C API:

  • LabVIEW 2012 SP1 or later (32-bit only)
  • LabVIEW FPGA Module 2012 SP1 or later (32-bit only)
  • 2015 or later version of the driver software for your device
  • Supported development operating system:
    Operating System 64-bit 32-bit
    Windows 10 ✓ ✓
    Windows 8.1 ✓ ✓
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 ✓ ✓
    Windows Server 2012 R2 ✓ —
    Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 ✓ —

Supported Target Operating Systems

When you have generated the C API from LabVIEW FPGA in a supported Windows operating system, you can create a C application that calls into the C API. Although you can use a variety of development environments (such as LabWindows/CVI), both your C application and the CompactRIO Device Drivers software must run on the target operating system and CPU architecture.

The C application and the CompactRIO device drivers software runs on the following operating systems and CPU architectures:

CPU Architecture Operating System Versions or Distributions Hardware Targets
x86, x86_64 Windows Any version supported for development PC, PXI
x86, x86_64 Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x, Scientific Linux 6.x, openSUSE 13.1 or 12.x PC, PXI
x86_64, ARM LabVIEW Real-Time NI Linux Real-Time NI CompactRIO
x86 LabVIEW Real-Time Phar Lap ETS PC, PXI
PowerPC LabVIEW Real-Time VxWorks CompactRIO, single-board RIO

Supported C/C++ Compilers

The C/C++ compiler you can use to compile your application depends on the operating system the application runs on. The manufacturer has tested the following combinations of target platforms and C/C++ compilers:

Target Platform Tested and Supported C/C++ Compiler(s)
Windows LabWindows/CVI 9.0 or later; Microsoft Visual C++ 2003 or later.
NI Linux Real-Time C/C++ Development Tools for NI Linux Real-Time, Eclipse Edition 2013 or later
Phar Lap ETS LabWindows/CVI 9.0 or later; Microsoft Visual C ++ 2003, 2008, or 2010 only. .
Note NI ETS 2014 supports Microsoft Visual C ++ 2003, 2008, or 2010 NI ETS 2017 supports Microsoft Visual C ++ 2008 or 2010 only.
VxWorks Wind River Workbench 2.3 or later; GNU Tool Chain for VxWorks, available for download.
Linux GCC 3 or later.

You can use a different ANSI C or ISO C compiler that supports your target platform. If you use a compiler that is not listed above, you might need to modify the provided examples and other components of the FPGA Interface C API.