The primary means of data storage in a single clock domain using an FPGA application is a memory item. Memory items can be created from the Project Explorer window or the block diagram.

Creating a Memory Item from the Project Explorer Window

Complete the following steps to create a target-scoped memory item from the Project Explorer window:

  1. In the Project Explorer window, right-click the FPGA target.
  2. Select New»Memory to display the Memory Properties dialog box.
  3. On the General page, expand the Implementation pull-down menu to display the available memory options.
  4. Click OK to finish creating the memory item.
  5. Drag the memory item from the Project Explorer window to the block diagram. LabVIEW adds a Memory Method Node configured for the memory item.

Creating a Memory Item from the Block Diagram

You can create either a target-scoped or a VI-defined memory item from the block diagram.

Target-Scoped

  1. Display the block diagram of the FPGA VI.
  2. From the Functions palette, add a Memory Method Node to the block diagram.
  3. Right-click the Memory Method Node and select Add New Memory to display the Memory Properties dialog box.
    Tip   You also can right-click the Memory Method Node and select Select Memory»x, where x is an existing memory item.
  4. On the General page, expand the Implementation pull-down menu to display the available memory options.
  5. Click OK to finish creating the memory item.

You also can wire a reference to the Memory In input to specify an existing memory item. After you specify the memory, right-click the Memory Method Node and select Select Method»y, where y is the specific method.

VI-Defined

  1. Display the block diagram of the FPGA VI.
  2. From the Functions palette, add a VI-Defined Memory Configuration Node to the block diagram.
  3. Right click the VI-Defined Memory Configuration Node and select Configure to display the Memory Properties dialog box.
  4. Expand the Implementation pull-down menu to display the available memory options.
  5. Click OK to finish creating the memory item.

When you configure a node on the block diagram to use a VI-defined memory item, LabVIEW prepends VI:: to the name of that memory item. For example, if you name your VI-defined memory item Coefficients, LabVIEW displays the name of that memory item as VI::Coefficients.