[wireties]

"im betting it cant cost NI more than $300 in order to manufacture this cRIO and all of its components"

That is way off. Students and indeed the general public are misled about the costs of computer-like things. We are used to buying consumer products which are made by the tens or hundreds of thousands or millions in China. NIs costs for the cRIO and modules are probably nearer to $1200 if they make them thousands at a time. And this is after putting in at least $500K in development. The development number would be much higher but this is not the first cRIO nor the first VxWorks BSP for this processor family.

NI has a great reputation for quality and good thorough engineering. My concern is that they are also quite expensive. If NI sells the cRIO for something similar to the current RC/OI they will be losing money. Wind River's products are the best-in-class but also pricey. I'll bet Wind River is just giving away development platforms (that might normally go for $20K each). One hopes that new management at NI and Wind River will not cut off FIRST after a few years. Until they do this control system is cool and students will get a real-world close-up look at an industrial strength setup. The current FIRST RC/OI setups are really just souped-up toys in comparison.