TABLE OF CONTENTS Phil Christ and Bonnie Stahlin
Agilent Technologies
Loveland, Colorado
Three technology areas have had a profound influence on how instruments and computers are used together:
software
computing technologies
input/output (I/O)
The convergence of these three technologies in instrumentation has created new capabilities and new ways of using test and measurement equipment. Here is a brief overview of these technologies and how they influence the test and measurement process.
Having the right hardware in place is not sufficient for many testing and measurement applications. A large amount of software is necessary. Indeed, software has become an equal partner to hardware in providing instrument functionality. This chapter focuses on three key software application areas:
Moving test data from instrumentation to computer applications for analysis and documentation
Automating complex or repetitive measurements
Remote monitoring and control of instrumentation
For a discussion of software-defined instruments, see Chapter 46.
Software advances are simplifying these tasks so that engineers focus less on hardware and software technology and more on making measurements and interpreting measurement information. The pervasive nature of the personal computer (PC) has driven huge levels of investment in development of new software technologies and applications. It has also resulted in increasing standardization of the applications and tools used in offices, laboratories, and production environments. Widespread usage of so-called applications suites, for example, allows instrument vendors to focus their software development investment on simply providing easy connectivity to these...
