Virtual instrument software architecture: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:40, 18 April 2009

Revision as of 17:28, 22 May 2009

Line 1:

'''Virtual Instrument Software Architecture''', commonly known as '''VISA''', is a widely used [[Input/output|I/O ]] [[Application programming interface|API]] in the Test & Measurement industry for communicating with [[Measuring instrument|instruments]] from a [[Personal computer|PC.]] VISA is an [[ Industry standard|industry standard ]] implemented by several T&M (Test & Measurement) companies, such as [[ Agilent|Agilent Technologies ]] and [[ National Instruments|National Instruments. ]]

The VISA standard includes specifications for communication with resources (usually, but not always, instruments) over T&M(Test and Measurement)-specific I/O interfaces such as [[GPIB]] and [[VXI|VXI. ]] There are also some specifications for T&M-specific [[ Protocol (computing)|protocols ]] over PC-standard I/O, such as VXI-11 (over [[ TCPIP|TCP/IP ]] ) and USBTMC (over [[ USB|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 and over the Microsoft [[ Component Object Model|COM ]] technology. 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 are also available for less common programming languages and software reuse technologies.

=== History ===

Line 10:

== References ==

* [http://www.ivifoundation.org/specifications/default.aspx VISA specifications] from IVI Foundation. (MS Word or PDF format)

[[Category:Input/Output]]

== See also ==

Line 17 ⟶ 15:

* [[SICL]]

* [[Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments]] (SCPI)

[[Category:Input/Output]]

[[de:Virtual Instrument Software Architecture]]