Most stable platform for LabView

[stenslat]

I would like opinions on what is the most stable platform on which to
run LabView & DAQ. I have been very unimpressed with NT (as far as
LabView stability and stability with other programs), but have found 95
and 98 to be OK. Would Mac, Linux, etc. be better? I would like to
find something that does not crash at all, is that so much to ask?

--
Toby Stensland
toby@stensland.com


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Before you buy.

[Johannes Niess]

Toby Stensland writes:

> I would like opinions on what is the most stable platform on which to
> run LabView & DAQ. I have been very unimpressed with NT (as far as
> LabView stability and stability with other programs), but have found 95
> and 98 to be OK. Would Mac, Linux, etc. be better? I would like to
> find something that does not crash at all, is that so much to ask?
>
> --
> Toby Stensland
> toby@stensland.com
>
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.

Toby,

There are different levels of stability. Let's start at the bottom:

1) Hardware
Sun and HP-UX: Non-PC hardware tested for years. Rock
solid.
Mac: No own expirience
PC: Often varies with price ; SCSI vs IDE, RAID, dual power supply..

2) Operating system
Solaris/HP-UX: You forget how to boot these: Uptime until hardware upgrade.
Linux: Our server had an uptime of 220 days until scheduled reboot.
NT: Some endors recommend to reboot once a week.
Windows 9X: You might get sufficient stability if you install the bare
minimum, don't touch it after that and reboot before any important
measurement.
Mac: Not much experience. Comparable to Win9X?
Windows 3.1: If you make a mistake it crashes instantly. This way you
learn of the bugs.

3) Labview:
Solaris/HP-UX: No own experience. Supported for some years.
Linux: New. DAQ seems to require some work (E-series boards only).
Labview can crash.
NT: Had some trouble with it. Labview crashes sometimes.
Win9X: Many installed systems. Crashes sometimes.
Mac: The first OS for Labview.

IMHO Labview itself isn't completely stable. Given the complexity of
the system it is quite stable, but it should be improved. My worst was
3 crashes on one day with linux during development. It seems to be
about the same on Microsoft platforms.

4) Your LV application
Due to missing data flow links you can end up reading from a device
before it has seen the command to spew out any data. Old (non-VISA)
serial I/O needs low level hardware programming (sometimes even down
to hard real time in the order of ms).

5) Your definition of stability
If you want measurements running for a week, other factors like power
supply (without UPS) might play a role.


You started an interesting discussion. I'd like to hear personal
experiences from other wire workers.

Johannes Niess

P.S: Linux: Is there a chance of a LabPC+ DAQ board working with the
E-Series drivers from LV or the non-LV LapPC+ drivers from the linux
lab web pages?

[stenslat]

Sun/Solaris/HP: I am not sure I even know what this is. Do you buy it
from Gateway? Does it run most programs? I generally need to run 1 E-
series NI board, a couple of RS-232 ports, and an ethernet
(intranet/internet) port. Does this system support these features?

NT: My personal experience is that NT is pretty stable as a network
server or a tightly controlled workstation (i.e. users have no
administrative rights). But NT becomes worse than 95/98 if you do
anything beyond the norm, like LabView programming, DAQ, or a site with
poor power quality (as mentioned in previous post).

95/98: It seems with 95/98, if I can get a computer working for a day
or two without trouble, it will work indefinitaly (throw in a reboot
when convenient of course). It doe
s depend on the particular machine
though.


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Before you buy.

[Kevin_work]

Toby Stensland wrote:

> Sun/Solaris/HP: I am not sure I even know what this is. Do you buy it
> from Gateway? Does it run most programs? I generally need to run 1 E-
> series NI board, a couple of RS-232 ports, and an ethernet
> (intranet/internet) port. Does this system support these features?

Sun manufactures what is commonly called a workstation.
HP (in this context) is the same thing although HP does make PCs now.
Solaris is Sun's OS and is really UNIX. (Called HP-UX for HP)

Cant buy any of this from Gateway or any other PC vendor.
You would have to contact a SUN or HP reseller.

Either will run programs written for them but I will lay dollars to
donuts that MS makes nothing that will run on a UNIX box.

You get all the interfaces you w
ant with a workstation but most standard
plug ins wont work (NI may make E-series for UNIX but i am not sure).
There are SUN boxes that have PCI busses but the problem is drivers,
you would find it difficult to pick up a plugin at your favorite PC store.

All that said I would say for ultra stable performace then SUN is the way to

go. They can be crashed (usually while developing something) and I have
had LV crash (during development). During normal operation they seldom
crash.
This is probably why most ISPs use them.

Kevin Kent
(I love my SUN in case you cant tell)

[mikell]

I've had good luck with 98.just start with a formatted HD and add only the
programs you need.

mikell

[Jeremy]

I work almost daily with LabVIEW, and use DAQ regularly on Win 98 and Mac OS. I have also used them both on Win 2000, but rarely. I have found both the Mac and Win 98 versions to be very stable, though not perfect. I probably get fewer crashes on the Mac, though not overwhelmingly so.