Virtual instrument software architecture: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Test and measurement API}}

'''Virtual instrument software architecture''', commonly known as '''VISA''', is a widely used [[Input/output|I/O]] [[Application programming interface|API]] in the test and measurement (T&M) industry for communicating with [[Measuring instrument|instruments]] from a computer. VISA is an [[Technical standard|industry standard]] implemented by several T&M companies, such as, [[Anritsu]], [[Bustec]], [[Keysight Technologies]], Kikusui, [[National Instruments]], [[Rohde & Schwarz]], and [[Tektronix]].

{{for|other uses of the term visa|Visa (disambiguation)}}

'''Virtual instrument software architecture''', commonly known as ('''VISA''',) is a widely used [[Input/output|I/O]] [[Applicationapplication programming interface|API]] (API) in the test and measurement (T&M) industry for communicating with [[Measuring instrument|instruments]] from a computer. VISA is an [[Technical standard|industry standard]] implemented by several T&M companies, such as, [[Anritsu]], [[Bustec]], [[Keysight Technologies]], Kikusui, [[National Instruments]], [[Rigol]], [[Rohde & Schwarz]], and [[Tektronix]].

The VISA standard<ref name="VISA Specification">{{cite news |url=http://www.ivifoundation.org/specifications/default.aspx

|publisher=IVI Foundation |title=VISA Specification}}</ref> includes specifications for communication with resources (usually, but not always, instruments) over T&M-specific I/O interfaces such as [[GPIB]] and [[VXI]]. There are also some specifications for T&M-specific [[Protocol (computing)|protocols]] over PC-standard I/O, such as [[High_Speed_LAN_Instrument_Protocol|HiSLIP]]<ref name="IVI-6.1: High-Speed LAN Instrument Protocol (HiSLIP)">{{cite news |url=http://www.ivifoundation.org/downloads/Class%20Specifications/IVI-6.1_HiSLIP-2010-06-08.pdf

|publisher=IVI Foundation |title=IVI-6.1: High-Speed LAN Instrument Protocol (HiSLIP)}}</ref> or VXI-11<ref name="VXI-11 Bus Specification">{{cite news |url=http://www.vxibus.org/?q=node/206

|publisher=VXI Bus Consortium |title=VXI-11 Bus Specification}}</ref> (over [[TCPIP|TCP/IP]]) and USBTMC<ref name="USB Test & Measurement Class Specification">{{cite news

|url = http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs

|publisher = USB Implementers Forum Inc.

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}}</ref> (over [[USB]]).

The VISA library has standardized the presentation of its operations over several software reuse mechanisms, including through a C [[Application programming interface|API]] exposed from Windows [[Library (computer science)#Dynamic linking|DLL]], visa32.dll, over the Microsoft [[Component Object Model|COM]] technology, and through a [[.NET Framework|.NET]] API. Although there are several VISA vendors and implementations, applications written against VISA are (nominally) vendor-interchangeable thanks to the standardization of VISA's presentation and operations/capabilities. Implementations from specific vendors {{Specify|date=August 2015}} are also available for less common programming languages {{Specify|date=August 2015}} and software reuse technologies.

==History==