National Instruments
Qt helped National Instruments deliver a high-performance, cross-platform dynamic control system development tool.
National Instruments transforms the way engineers and scientists around the world design, prototype, and deploy systems for test, control, and embedded design applications. Using NI open graphical programming software and modular hardware, customers at more than 25,000 companies annually simplify development, increase productivity, and dramatically reduce time to market. From testing next-generation gaming systems to creating breakthrough medical devices, NI customers continuously develop innovative technologies that impact millions of people.
The Challenge
For its next generation developer’s tool, MATRIXx, National Instruments wanted to continue to offer its customers a choice of platforms: Unix, Linux, Windows XP or Mac, but had to find a way to make the new capabilities available on each of those operating systems. In addition to its cross-platform requirement, the company needed to design a development tool that would be easy to implement.
The Solution
Qt allowed the team to migrate, re-write and manage code with ease. National Instruments used Qt to add a number of capabilities to the application and rewrite the GUI code, which went from 650,000 source lines of code to fewer than 300,000, making it much easier to manage. Additionally, the team was able to re-implement the GUI across different environments, thanks to Qt’s cross-platform capabilities.
The Value
The re-designed MATRIXx featured an easier to use GUI and upgraded features, increasing customer satisfaction. Because development for each of the target platforms, Unix, Linux, Windows XP and Mac, was simplified, National Instruments was able to decrease development time, bringing the product to market faster.
We have a long history with our applications. We have been around the block many times – GUI, multi-platform. We have come to the ultimate solution with Qt. We’ve tried many solutions and have come to the best one now. MATRIXx v8.0 is a customer success story. - Bob Pizzi, Principal Architect, National Instruments
