Hello.
Thank you for posting to the NI Discussion Forums.
Currently, our Linux drivers do only support 32 bit OS's. Thus, the most addressing that you can achieve in RAM is 2^32 bits or appoximately 4.3 GB. We constantly evaluate making new drivers that meet the wants and needs of our customers so it is possible that a 64 bit driver could be released.
As far as your questions about RHEL5, this OS is not officially supported by our 488.2 drivers. A complete table of Linux OS's supported by our drivers can be found here:
Note that RHEL5 is not certified to work with this our drivers, "but may work with an appropriate version of NI-KAL installed or other workarounds. Extensive user testing is recommended before deploying a system using this configuration." For more information about instrument control and Linux, the following website is a great starting place:
We do offer an NI488 DDK. This DDK can be used as a guide to develop a driver for any OS, including 64 bit OS's. It ships with examples that can usually be modified without a ton of work to fit a specific OS. However, making the jump from 32 bit to 64 bit will require a greater time investment and require more significant code modifications. It is still possible though. The product page for the 488DDK can be found here, which includes user manuals and pricing information.
Let me know if you have any other quesitons!
Brian F
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
