Software for VXI
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Overview
VXI Software
From drivers and interactive measurement tools to the company's revolutionary application development environments and software utilities for test and data management, National Instruments offers a tightly integrated software framework to increase productivity and maximize code reuse.
An active member in both the VXI Consortium and the VXIplug&play Systems Alliance, National Instruments provides VXI controllers that are VXIplug&play-compliant as well as compatible with software available for general-market computers. NI-VXI/NI-VISA software, included with all NI controllers, features an application programming interface (API) that complies with all the latest VXIplug&play standards. National Instruments LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio application development environments are designed for instrument control and feature graphical programming paradigms to accelerate your development. With these packages, you can choose from thousands of industry-standard instrument drivers available from more than 180 vendors. NI hardware and software solutions lead the industry in ease of use, performance, and, most of all, ease of development.
Table of Contents
Measurement and Control Services and NI-VXI/NI-VISA
Measurement and control services software plays a critical role in delivering the key benefits of a modular, computer-based measurement system. The components of this software – high-performance hardware drivers, flexible and intuitive high-level APIs, and a common configuration manager -- all integrate within the application development environments (ADEs) to attain maximum system performance and development productivity. Specific measurement and control services software tasks include the integration, configuration, and programming of measurement devices. These powerful tools reduce the time you spend configuring your test system and developing your tests.
NI-VXI/NI-VISA
The NI-VXI/NI-VISA bus interface software, a key part of measurement and control services software, provides a comprehensive software package for configuring, programming, and troubleshooting VXI/VME systems. It features a complete set of high-performance routines for industry-standard programming languages and intuitive tools. With NI-VXI/NI-VISA, you can develop systems that are portable across a variety of controllers, such as embedded controllers or external computers that interface to VXI with MXI-2, MXI-3, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, and IEEE 488 technologies. Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA) is the industry-standard I/O software interface developed by National Instruments and standardized by the VXIplug&play Systems Alliance. You can use VISA to program VXI, PXI, USB, VME, GPIB, Ethernet, and other types of devices. Applications developed using VISA can run on any VXIplug&play controller platform and are portable for all VXI controller types. Applications developed using NI-VXI function calls are portable for all NI embedded, MXI, USB, and IEEE 1394 controller solutions.
NI-VXI/NI-VISA Software Tools
NI designed the NI-VXI and NI-VISA software libraries and interactive utilities to take advantage of the VXI feature set. NI also provides utilities such as VXI configuration tools, VXI Resource Manager, and VISA Interactive Control for configuring and troubleshooting your system.
Remote NI-VISA
NI-VXI/NI-VISA comes with remote NI-VISA. Using remote NI-VISA, you can programmatically access resources on remote workstations. You also can use a device connected to a single controller from multiple client workstations. For example, you can access any VXI device connected in a chassis controlled by NI-VISA software over your network from your desktop PC.
Application Development Environments
· LabVIEW
· LabWindows/CVI
· Measurement Studio
NI offers two ADEs specifically for measurement and automation – LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI. In addition, NI Measurement Studio features measurement and automation tools and class libraries for Microsoft C#, Visual Basic, and C++.
With NI LabVIEW, an off-the-shelf graphical development environment designed specifically for developing integrated measurement and automation systems, you can assemble user interfaces and high-level functions for instrument control, data acquisition and control, signal processing and analysis, and visualization in the same way that you construct flowcharts. With the modularity and hierarchical structure of LabVIEW, you can quickly and easily prototype, design, deploy, and modify systems. Because the LabVIEW ADE is compiled for maximum execution performance, contains hundreds of measurement-specific analysis routines, and is tightly integrated with your measurement and control services software, you can quickly design high-performance measurement and automation applications that incorporate numerous I/O devices. LabVIEW also integrates well with industry-standard Internet and database technologies, as well as test management systems.
NI LabWindows/CVI is a proven powerful ANSI C development environment with comprehensive acquisition, analysis, and presentation libraries designed to protect your C-based development effort for years to come. With its development productivity features including drag-and-drop user interface design, interactive creation and testing of code, and complete instrument driver creation wizards, LabWindows/CVI simplifies the task of creating C-based measurement applications. First introduced in 1988, LabWindows/CVI is a reliable development environment that has withstood the many changes in OS and computing technologies. LabWindows/CVI integrates tightly with NI measurement and control services software to integrate a wide variety of I/O.
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Test and Data Management
Test management software, commonly referred to as a test executive, must provide a framework for the entire test system. It must include sequencing, looping, and decision-making capabilities for the test program; generate reports; and provide an interface between the test system and various enterprise systems, such as databases, manufacturing execution systems, and quality systems. NI TestStand is a ready-to-run test executive that organizes, controls, and executes automated prototype, validation, or production test systems. NI TestStand is completely customizable, so you can modify and enhance it to match your specific needs. NI TestStand fully integrates with LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio so you can generate code and perform full debugging, including stepping into test programs directly from NI TestStand.
If you use a measurement system to collect large amounts of data, data management frameworks are an important element of that integrated measurement system. Incorporating technical data management into a system helps organizations share data efficiently and make informed decisions. By implementing a data management framework and using it with NI DIAdem software, you can extract measurement data from numerous file formats, manipulate and interactively analyze data using hundreds of engineering-focused analysis routines, and generate standardized professional reports for collaboration.
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This tutorial (this "tutorial") was developed by National Instruments ("NI"). Although technical support of this tutorial may be made available by National Instruments, the content in this tutorial may not be completely tested and verified, and NI does not guarantee its quality in any way or that NI will continue to support this content with each new revision of related products and drivers. THIS TUTORIAL IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND AND SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RESTRICTIONS AS MORE SPECIFICALLY SET FORTH IN NI.COM'S TERMS OF USE (http://ni.com/legal/termsofuse/unitedstates/us/).