An instrument driver, in the context of test and measurement (T&M) application development, is a set of software routines that simplifies remote

instrument control Instrument control consists of connecting a desktop instrument to a computer and taking measurements. History In the late 1960s the first bus used for communication was developed by Hewlett-Packard and was called HP-IB ( Hewlett-Packard Interfa ...

. Instrument drivers are specified by the IVI Foundation and define an I/O abstraction layer using the

virtual instrument software architecture Virtual instrument software architecture (VISA) is a widely used application programming interface (API) in the test and measurement (T&M) industry for communicating with instruments from a computer. VISA is an industry standard implemented by se ...

(VISA). The VISA hardware abstraction layer provides an interface-independent communication channel to T&M instruments. The drivers encapsulate the

Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments The Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI; often pronounced "skippy") defines a standard for syntax and commands to use in controlling programmable test and measurement devices, such as automatic test equipment and electronic tes ...

(SCPI) commands, which are an

ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

-based set of commands for reading and writing instrument settings and measurement data. This standard allows an abstract way of using various

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

s to program remote-control applications instead of using SCPI commands. An instrument driver usually has a well-defined

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

Standards

VXIplug&play

The VXIplug&play Systems Alliance was founded in 1993 with the aim of unifying VXI hardware and software to achieve 'plug and play' interoperability for

VXI VME eXtensions for instrumentation bus (VXI bus) refers to standards for automated test based upon VMEbus. VXI defines additional bus lines for timing and triggering as well as mechanical requirements and standard protocols for configuration, me ...

and

GPIB Glycoprotein Ib (GPIb), also known as CD42, is a component of the GPIb-V-IX complex on platelets. The GPIb-V-IX complex binds von Willebrand factor, allowing platelet adhesion and platelet plug formation at sites of vascular injury. Glycoprotei ...

instruments. As part of the unifying process, VXIplug&play instrument drivers were also defined.

IVI

When the IVI Foundation took over the Alliance in 2002, it defined a new generation of instrument drivers to replace the VXIplug&play standard. The IVI instrument driver specification intends to overcome the drawbacks of VXIplug&play. These IVI (Interchangeable Virtual Instrumentation) drivers are currently defined in three different architectures: # The IVI-

COM Com or COM may refer to: Computing * COM (hardware interface), a serial port interface on IBM PC-compatible computers * COM file, or .com file, short for "command", a file extension for an executable file in MS-DOS * .com, an Internet top-level ...

driver architecture is based on the Microsoft

Component Object Model Component Object Model (COM) is a binary-interface technology for software components from Microsoft that enables using objects in a language-neutral way between different programming languages, programming contexts, processes and machines ...

. # The IVI-C drivers are based on

C programming language C (''pronounced'' '' – like the letter c'') is a general-purpose programming language. It was created in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie and remains very widely used and influential. By design, C's features cleanly reflect the capabilities of ...

shared components (shared libraries). # The IVI

.NET The .NET platform (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a free and open-source, managed code, managed computer software framework for Microsoft Windows, Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems. The project is mainly developed by Microsoft emplo ...

driver architecture was specified in 2010. The IVI.NET drivers are based on the

framework.

Instrumentation remote control

Instrument drivers allow quicker development of remote-control applications for instrumentation. The drivers reduce the difficulty of string formatting when using

SCPI The Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI; often pronounced "skippy") defines a standard for syntax and commands to use in controlling programmable test and measurement devices, such as automatic test equipment and electronic tes ...

commands by providing a well-defined

. The IVI and VXIplug&play Instrument Drivers use the VISA as the hardware abstraction layer so that hardware-independent applications can be developed.

I/O hardware abstraction layer VISA

The

VISA Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

library allows test and measurement equipment to be connected through various hardware interfaces. The following interfaces are available: *

Serial Port A serial port is a serial communication Interface (computing), interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in Pa ...

IEEE-488 Glycoprotein Ib (GPIb), also known as CD42, is a component of the GPIb-V-IX complex on platelets. The GPIb-V-IX complex binds von Willebrand factor, allowing platelet adhesion and platelet plug formation at sites of vascular injury. Glycoprotein ...

* VXI-11 (over

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

) * USB488/USBTMC (USB Test & Measurement),

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

Test & Measurement Class Specification *

HiSLIP HiSLIP (High-Speed LAN Instrument Protocol) is a TCP/IP-based protocol for remote instrument control of LAN-based test and measurement instruments. It was specified by the IVI Foundation and is intended to replace the older VXI-11 protocol. Like VX ...

(over

LXI

The LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation (LXI) standard defines the communications protocols for controlling test and measurement systems using

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

. The standard requires vendors to offer IVI compliant instrument drivers.

References

External links

IVI Foundation

SCPI Consortium

VXIplug&play Systems Alliance
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329001457/http://www.ivifoundation.org/VXIPlug_Play/default.aspx , date=2010-03-29
LXI Consortium

Introduction to Attribute Based Instrument Drivers

Development Hints and Best Practices for Using Instrument Drivers
Input/output Electronic test equipment