Build Virtual Instruments Using Power Macintosh Computers

Combining Capabilities of New Plug-In Instrument Control and Data
Acquisition Boards with PCI and PowerPC Processor Give Scientists and
Engineers Improved Processing and Throughput

Austin, Texas - June 19, 1995 - National Instruments announced today its
first PCI (peripheral component interconnect) boards. These
high-performance, low-cost plug-in GPIB instrument control and data
acquisition (DAQ) boards are designed for the Power Macintosh 9500, also
announced today by Apple Computer, Inc. Scientists and engineers can use
the PCI-GPIB instrument control board and PCI-MIO-16XE-50, PCI-1200, and
PCI-DIO-96 DAQ boards with LabVIEW application software as well as
traditional programming languages. The GPIB and DAQ boards, which include
NI488.2 and NI-DAQ driver software, respectively, are ideal for laboratory
automation, test and measurement, and process monitoring and control
applications in which users need to measure, monitor, or control a unit
under test or a sensor responding to a physical phenomenon such as
voltage, temperature, pressure, pH, force, displacement, light intensity,
and flow.

"Apple Computer is very pleased to have an industry leader such as National
Instruments as a developer of PCI boards for instrumentation applications
in science and engineering," said Howard Lee, senior vice president of
Apple's Macintosh Systems Division. "This relationship will serve to
enhance and extend the breadth of solutions available to customers as we
continue the emphasis on our technical markets."

"We're excited to be part of Apple's announcement of the new Power
Macintosh 9500," said Tim Dehne, Vice President of Marketing at National
Instruments. "Our customers are scientists and engineers who typically
want the utmost performance from their computers. We've worked closely
with Apple over the years to develop compatible products when new hardware
platforms were announced. When Apple announced the Macintosh II in 1987,
we announced the first NuBus plug-in DAQ boards at the same time. We also
worked closely with Apple during the development of the Power Macintosh to
develop native versions of our LabVIEW graphical instrumentation software
and HiQ numerical analysis and data visualization software. The new Power
Macintosh 9500 incorporates even faster, more powerful RISC-based PowerPC
processors, and our products will leverage the power of the PowerPC and
PCI to give scientists and engineers an unmatched level of performance and
throughput."

About the PCI-GPIB and NI-488.2 Driver Software

The PCI-GPIB is the high-performance IEEE 488.2 controller board, which
features the company's TNT4882C ASIC. THE PCI-GPIB performs complete
Talker, Listener, and Controller functions, including those required by
IEEE 488.2, and implements the HS488 high-speed GPIB protocol and standard
IEEE 488 transfers. A Power Macintosh equipped with the PCI-GPIB becomes a
high-performance IEEE 488.2 Controller used to monitor, control, and
communicate with thousands of GPIB-based engineering, scientific, or
graphics instruments.

Users can program the PCI-GPIB with the company's NI-488.2 software.
NI-488.2 includes a device driver, a configuration program, an interactive
control program, NI-488.2 language interface, and hardware and software
diagnostic tests. NI-488.2 routines implement the Controller sequences and
protocols defined in the IEEE 488.2 standard. The Macintosh version of
NI-488.2 is a native-mode device driver that takes full advantage of the
PCI architecture. Thus, users can realize full performance benefits of the
PowerPC processor. The driver can control up to eight GPIB interfaces and
up to 64 individual devices. With the National Instruments GPIB
Configuration utility, users can edit the descriptions of the devices and
boards in the system. Users can select several GPIB interface types,
including plug-in boards, Ethernet-to-GPIB, serial, and SCSI.

About the DAQ Boards and NI-DAQ Driver Software

The PCI-M10-16XE-50 -- the first of the company's E Series boards for
Macintosh computers -- is a high-performance analog, digital, and timing
I/O board. Engineers and scientists can plug the PCI-MIO-16XE-50 into a
Power Macintosh, replace the cover, and completely configure the board
through software without having to set switches or move jumpers. The host
computer configures all aspects of the bus I/O, such as base I/O address
and interrupt level. All aspects of data acquisition configuration, such
as I/O range, polarity, calibration, and gain are configured through
software.

For more information on the capabilities of the PCI-MIO-16XE-50, the
PCI-1200, and the PCI-DIO-96, please refer to the table below.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:           PCI-MIO 16XE-50
Function:       high performance analog, digital and timing I/O
ADC Resolution: 16-bit
Channels:       16 single-ended or 8 differential
Sampling Rate:  20 kS/s
DACs:           two 12-bit
Digital I/O:    eight lines, TTL-compatible
Counter/Timer:  two 24-bit, users custom DAQ-STC ASIC
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:           PCI-1200
Function:       low cost analog, digital and timing I/O
ADC Resolution: 12-bit
Channels:       eight single-ended or four differential
Sampling Rate:  100 kS/s
DACs:           two 12-bit
Digital I/O:    24 lines configured as three 8-bit ports
Counter/Timer:  three independent, 16-bit
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:           PCI-CIO-96
Function:       96-bit parallel digital I/O
Sampling Rate:  features high-speed transfers
Digital I/O:    four 24-bit PPIs, each divided into three 8-bit ports
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The company includes the Macintosh version of its robust NI-DAQ software
with all of its PCI plug-in DAQ boards. NI-DAQ is a set of more than 110
functions that control plug-in DAQ boards for analog input, analog output,
waveform generation, digital I/O, timing I/O, and DMA control. NI-DAQ also
acts as a Resource Manager to eliminate interrupt, DMA, or address
conflicts between several DAQ boards. NI-DAQ eliminates the low-level
programming task and integrates the hardware capabilities with high-level
application programming environments.

Application Software for Power Macintosh LabVIEW introduced the world to
graphical instrumentation programming on Macintosh computers in April
1986. In LabVIEW, software programs called virtual instruments (VIs)
consist of a graphical frontpanel user interface and a block diagram
program. The block diagram is created simply by connecting executable
blocks, or icons, with the wires that pass data between the blocks, rather
than by writing sequential lines of conventional programming code. LabVIEW
features extensive, ready-to-use libraries for data acquisition, signal
processing, numerical analysis, and data presentation. Users can program
all National Instruments PCI boards using LabVIEW. LabVIEW add-on toolkits
are available for highly technical special functions, such as statistical
process control, test executive, joint time-frequency signal analysis, and
PID control.

HiQ is an object-based numerical analysis and data visualization software
package that gives scientists and engineers an integrated graphical
environment for solving real-world math problems. HiQ has more than 600
mathematical functions; publication-quality output; interactive
three-dimensional graphics; a scripting language; a compiler; and a set of
application-specific "Problem Solvers." HiQ follows a Virtual Notebook
metaphor for organizing and presenting data -- users make entries by
placing data inputs, annotations, graphs, and Problem Solver icons on
their worksheet. With Problem Solvers, users interactively explore
numerical integration, expression evaluation, optimization, ordinary
differential equations, roots of polynomials, nonlinear systems, data
fitting, integral equations, and other complex problems.

Also available is LabSuite, which includes LabVIEW and HiQ software to
integrate all components of the scientific method. Scientists and
engineers can hypothesize and model an experiment with the extensive
numerical capability of HiQ. They can use the data acquisition and in-line
analysis capabilities of LabVIEW to develop a data acquisition and control
system to conduct the experiment and measure its results. They can then
use the analysis libraries in LabVIEW to analyze and present the data in
real time, or the "Write To HiQ" VI in the LabVIEW File Utility Library to
transfer the data acquired to HiQ for off-line interactive analysis,
modeling, correlating the model with the experimental data, and
documenting the process. The user can then adjust the hypothesis, based on
the experiment, and repeat the process.

End-User Applications and Markets

Scientists and engineers use the company's data acquisition and instrument
control products in many applications, including laboratory automation,
automated testing, research and development, acoustics/sonar/audio,
factory automation, calibration, mechanical engineering, and process
monitoring and control. Target industries vary widely but include
electronics, automotive, aerospace, computer, foods, textiles,
petrochemical, pulp and paper, metal, analytical chemistry,
pharmaceutical, physiology, psychology, and environmental monitoring.

National Instruments, headquartered in Austin, Texas, manufactures software
and hardware products for PCs and workstations that scientists and
engineers worldwide use to build virtual instrumentation systems. These
systems are used for research and industrial applications such as
automated testing, laboratory automation, advanced research, industrial
control, factory automation, physiological monitoring, numerical analysis,
and data visualization.

About National Instruments

National Instruments stock is traded on the NASDAQ National Market System
under the symbol NATI. Further information on National Instruments may be
obtained from the company's SEC filings or by directly contacting the
company's Investor Relations Department at (512) 338-9119.

Pricing, Availability, and For More Information

The PCI-GPIB will be available in Q3 1995 for $495. The PCI-MIO-16XE-50
will be available in Q3 1995 for $1,295. The PCI-1200 will be available in
Q3 1995 for $795. The PCI-DIO-96 will be available in Q3 1995 for $395.
LabVIEW for Macintosh and Power Macintosh computers is available now for
$1,995. HiQ is available now for $695. For more information, contact
National Instruments, 6504 Bridge Point Parkway, Austin, Texas 78730-5039,
(512) 794-0100. Or call toll free in the U.S. and Canada at (800)
433-3488, fax (512) 794-8411, e-mail info@natinst.com. Readers can also
access information through the National Instruments InstrumentationWeb at
http://www.natinst.com/.

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