NEWS RELEASE – Mar. 22, 2011 – As part of the CommNexus Industry Leaders Series, Dr. James Truchard, president, CEO and cofounder of National Instruments, will speak at the CommNexus San Diego Special Interest Groups (SIGs) active forum on March 29 in San Diego, Calif. In his speech, “Trends and Technologies Driving the Future of Test,” Truchard will explore how the latest technologies in embedded design and instrumentation will shape the product platforms of the future and help engineers reduce cost while increasing productivity.
“When considering the history of modular instrumentation, we have tangible evidence of the impact of Moore’s Law,” Truchard said. “Standards such as PXI, introduced in the late 1990s, have delivered on this standard by offering higher performance in a much smaller form factor. Today’s engineers need to focus on getting more out of their design platforms; expect vendors to deliver smaller, more powerful hardware; invest in tools to save them time; and choose software with continuity to ‘do Moore’ – or they’ll be stuck with less.”
The presentation will discuss the importance of software investment for long-term sustainability and the ways in which miniaturization of hardware over time will ultimately result in a more efficient test system design. Truchard also will provide insight into how technologies such as multicore processing and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) will change the way engineers test, measure and analyze data. Increases in performance and reductions in cost for electronics products across every industry will result in a shift in focus from larger, less powerful benchtop instruments to smaller, more flexible test systems.
Truchard is passionate about innovation and advancing the way engineers design and develop measurement and automation applications. Under Truchard’s leadership, National Instruments became a pioneer in the test and measurement industry with the development of virtual instrumentation software and hardware. Over the past 35 years, Truchard has established himself as a philanthropist and entrepreneur through his significant contributions to engineering education and the scientific community. Among other honors, he was named America’s Sixth favorite CEO by Forbes magazine and Glassdoor.com, and was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest honors given in the engineering profession.
CommNexus San Diego is a non-profit technology industry association that works to accelerate the formation, growth and success of the technology industry in the region. National Instruments is a platinum sponsor of CommNexus as well as the corporate sponsor and co-chair of the organization’s Semiconductor SIG. As an active sponsor and member, NI will work with other members to support technology companies in San Diego and create a community that helps drive innovation in industry.
Readers can visit www.commnexus.org to learn more and register for the Industry Leaders event.
About National Instruments
National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 4 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,200 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 12 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.
