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Software Overview

From VTI Instruments Corporation
 

 

The terminology and acronyms within the test and measurement software community can be overwhelming at first glance. For example, how do VXIplug&play, SCPI, CVI, LabVIEW, HP VEE, VISA, GUI and IVI relate to one another? What does an instrument driver do? How does it differ from a VXIplug&play driver? Does it matter anymore whether a VXIbus device is register or message-based? This technical note is intended to provide answers to these questions and more as they relate to communicating with VXIbus instruments.

In our analogy, our desktop office device to control is a laser printer, and our VXIbus instrument is a VM2616 waveform digitizer. A user isn't typically given access to the low-level commands for the printer. They are provided with a software driver (graphical user interface or GUI) with their application, MSWord in this example, which provides control over the primary functions (e.g. paper orientation or color). The GUI interfaces with the printer specific hardware driver supplied by the manufacturer (Fig. 2). In the VXIbus instrumentation world, manufacturers will supply a standalone GUI application referred to as soft front panel (Fig. 3). The soft front panel is an application that is developed by a manufacturer that interfaces to their software driver to give very high-level and easy access to instrument functions by imitating the look and feel of a box instrument.

Product Announcements
Pickering Interfaces US Inc. - 18 Slot LXI Modular Switching Chassis
The 60-103 is fully compliant with the LXI Class C specification and supports Pickering Interfaces 3U PXI switching modules. Each module is supported as though it is an LXI compliant device, complete... (read more)
Pickering Interfaces US Inc. - LXI Modular Switching Chassis, 7-Slot
The 60-102 is fully compliant with the LXI Class C specification and supports Pickering Interfaces 3U PXI switching modules. Each module is supported as though it is an LXI compliant device, complete... (read more)
KineticSystems/GaGe - V213- 32 or 64-channel scanning ADC
The V213 is a single-width, C-size, register-based, VXIbus module that can digitize as many as 64 analog voltage channels. The resulting digital data is stored in a block of memory that can be read... (read more)
Star Micronics America - Prescription Printer for EMR Software from Star
Star Micronics has the solution for printing prescriptions from EMR Software for healthcare professionals, hospitals, and medical clinics, economically, quick and silent. Star has devised such a... (read more)
Topics of Interest
Overview With every major release of LabVIEW, we've watched the general architecture of instrument drivers change significantly. Back in the time of LabVIEW 1, about the only I/O functions we had... (Read More)
Prior to 1987 there existed only one major architecture standard for instruments...the General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB). Although the GPIB was widely used, it did not address the need for portable... (Read More)
Nihal Kularatna, Shantilal Atukorala 11.1 Introduction This chapter provides an introduction to common instrument interfaces and VLSI testing. Technical details of two matured standards such as... (Read More)
Overview Learning Objectives. On completion of this chapter the reader will have a knowledge on: Common Instrument Interfaces 4 20 MA Current Loop 60 MA Current Loop RS 232,... (Read More)
Introduction Most software applications these days are built using graphical user interface (GUI) development tools. Such tools provide a set of controls also known as "widgets" out of which user... (Read More)