On Monday, Dr. James Truchard, President and CEO of National Instruments, delivered a keynote address to attendees of a National Science Foundation workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems.  The workshop promoted a new government initative to research and enhance the real-time integration of computers and physical components.

Truchard discussed cyber-physical system design and programming, including technologies for distributed control and sensing using graphical system design tools. He also gave a preview of future technologies for cyber-physical system design and showed examples of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT and wireless sensing devices.

He emphasized the importance of programming heterogeneous multiprocessor computer systems, which are key to controlling these types of systems, so that they meet concurrency, responsiveness, power, performance and reliability requirements.

[via National Instruments]