National Instruments Acquires HiQ Numerical Analysis Software

National Instruments recently added HiQ for Macintosh to its award-winning
software portfolio. HiQ, originally developed by Bimillennium Corporation,
is a numerical analysis software package for modeling, simulating, and
documenting numerical or real-world problems. National Instruments has the
exclusive rights to HiQ, and is now responsible for supporting the HiQ
installed base and making future product developments.

Today, numerical problems are solved with personal computers, whereas just
a few years ago these problems could be solved only with a mainframe
computer performing intensive programming. Now, with inexpensive and
easy-to-use numerical analysis software, you can focus on the problem
rather than writing complicated FORTRAN programs to obtain a solution.

HiQ Solves Real-World Problems

HiQ is an interactive numerical methods and visualization software package
with which you can pose, solve, visualize, and document problems in one
environment. Engineers and scientists solve real-world problems such as
heat conduction, fluid flow modeling, and predicting stress and strain
behavior, using scientific principles from disciplines that include
mathematics, physics, computer science, chemistry, and biology. HiQ solves
these real-world problems with a methodology that integrates five
components - the Virtual Notebook, interactive analysis, insightful
graphics, a powerful numerical analysis library, and Hiq-Script - an
analysis programming language.

The Virtual Notebook

HiQ follows a compelling metaphor, the Virtual Notebook, where you
organize, annotate, and symbolically represent data, graphs, and analysis
programs called HiQScript. All of these components, represented as HiQ
symbols, are dynamically linked in the notebook environment. The Virtual
Notebook is a document with interactive capabilities for visualization and
simulation. Each notebook page contains different types of HiQ symbols,
such as scalars, vectors, matrices, graphs, HiQ-Script programs,
annotations, and Problem Solvers. With the Virtual Notebook, you can
interactively manipulate each symbol. Each HiQ symbol type has its own
graphical user editor. The HiQ-Script Editor, for instance, is a full
programming editor. The Graph Editor, Problem Solvers, and Text Editors
are similarly custom designed for their respective data types.

Interactive Analysis

HiQ includes a set of Problem Solvers with a GUI for interactively solving
numerical analysis problems without programming. In addition, you can use
the Problem Solvers to automatically generate analysis code, HiQ-Script,
that you can modify for your custom application. With the Problem Solvers
GUIs, you immediately solve numerical problems. More than 100 mathematical
programs are organized into a manageable set of 10 categories with GUIs
that have a common "look and feel." The HiQ Problem Solvers include:

* Curve Fitting
* Expression Evaluator
* Numerical Integration
* General Root Solver
* Optimizer
* Polynomial Root Solver
* Nonlinear System Solver
* Integral Equation Solver
* ODE Boundary Value Problem Solver
* ODE Initial Value Problem Solver

Insightful 2D and 3D Graphics

The advanced HiQ 2D and 3D visualization tools give you more insight into
your problem. The graphics are tightly coupled to the math functions, so
you can interactively transform, visualize, and analyze data, and
immediately find the meaning behind it. Graphs can appear as HiQ symbols
and can be edited with the Grapher Editor. In the Grapher Editor, you can
manipulate viewing angle, color shading, lighting, and perspective. You
can also zoom in or zoom out. Another feature is the ability to create
animated "movies" for model simulation studies. All of these functions are
programmable from the HiQ-Script language.

Powerful Numerical Analysis

HiQ has more than 600 engineering, scientific, and applied math functions.
The analysis functions are divided into three different levels. The lower
level numerical functions cover simple but important tasks, such as
determining the maximum value of a list of values or finding the integer
part of a rational number. Hundreds of intermediate-level functions are
contained in the library, including linear algebra, applied mathematics,
statistics. probabilities, signal processing, and data analysis functions.
The higher level functions are the HiQ Problem Solvers. Programming the
analysis functions is made easier with the analysis code-generation
capabilities of HiQ. When developing an analysis program in the HiQ-Script
environment, you use the analysis code generator to automatically place
the analysis function into your program.

HiQ-Script

The HiQ-Script language was built specifically for scientists and engineers
to solve analysis problems. It is a pseudocode language. The language is
simple to learn, yet contains the capabilities to perform complex
programming tasks. The burden is taken out of programming by providing
automatic creation of HiQ-Script with data structures, data typing, and
input/output formatting. HiQ-Script is a complete programming language
with built-in analysis code generation and a compiler. In addition to the
analysis code generation capabilities of HiQ, programming constructs such
as, If Then...Else, Case, and For Loop structures are generated in the
HiQScript Editor by setting the cursor location where you want the code
generated and then selecting the construct type from a tear-away palette.
The programming structure is then placed in the program.

Choosing Between LabVIEW, LabWindows, or HiQ

Because LabVIEW and LabWindows have very powerful advanced analysis
capabilities, you might wonder which software package to use. HiQ is very
different from LabVIEW and LabWindows. It is a stand-alone numerical
analysis package built to document, annotate, simulate, and model
real-world problems. LabVIEW and LabWindows, on the other hand, are used
for in-line or real-time processing. HiQ is complementary to our other
software products, and is easily used in conjunction with them to verify
or model data collected from experimental tests.

Vehicle performance testing, which requires complex physical modeling of
three-dimensional fluid flow and heat conduction within engine components,
clearly differentiates the products. Turbulence in fluid flows and heat
generation in the engine impacts the stability and control, thermal
characteristics, and fuel performance of vehicles. In addition, the
analysis of the mechanical stress and strain behavior of vehicle
components also impact designs. For vehicle testing, HiQ is used to model
fluid flow, heat conduction, and mechanical stress and strains
numerically, while LabVIEW or LabWindows is used to acquire, analyze, and
present the real-world signals collected from flow meters, thermocouples,
and strain gauges.

Overall, LabVIEW or LabWindows is used to control, collect, and analyze
data from an experiment or test, while HiQ is used to predict, simulate,
or model a physical system before or after an experiment or test.
Furthermore, after the experimental data is collected, the notebook
metaphor of HiQ is useful for documenting the experimental data and the
physical model. To assist in importing and exporting data into HiQ and
LabVIEW, we have created LabVIEW VIs that read and write to HiQ data
format.

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