By default, RT targets and VIs use a variety of settings designed to facilitate development and debugging. However, these settings can affect the performance and determinism of your RT application. This topic describes steps you can take to optimize application performance for deployment.

Selecting Optimal Deployment Settings

Before benchmarking or deploying an RT application, consider the following settings to optimize performance and determinism:

Setting Name Location Optimal Performance Setting Details
Hyperthreading RT target BIOS Disabled NI recommends that you avoid using hyperthreading, which can cause severe jitter. NI disables hyperthreading on RT targets by default. However, if you are using a third-party desktop PC as an RT target, hyperthreading might be enabled by default. Use the RT target BIOS to determine whether hyperthreading is enabled and to disable hyperthreading if necessary.
Packet Detection Network Settings tab under the More Settings pull-down menu in NI Measurement & Automation Explorer Polling Polling mode provides lower jitter than interrupt mode. However, polling mode increases CPU overhead. Not all real-time targets support polling mode.
Enable CPU Load Monitoring Miscellaneous Properties page Disabled CPU load monitoring increases CPU and memory overhead.
Allow debugging Execution page Disabled Debugging support increases CPU and memory overhead.

Additional Deployment Actions

In addition to the settings described above, you can take the following actions to optimize the performance of your deployed RT application:

  • Install only the minimum software set.
  • Minimize the size of the VI to optimize caching effects.
  • Build and run your RT project as a stand-alone application