Chapter 1
Introduction
1-4
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Standard Equipment
Your hardware includes the VXIpc 870 Series controller, which you install
in your VXI mainframe. You also receive the following accessories:
•
COM1/2 adapter cable
•
Enhanced parallel port adapter cable
•
Single-shielded 2 m GPIB cable
•
AT-PS/2 cable
National Instruments Software
National Instruments has developed several software kits you can use
with the VXIpc 870 Series.
Driver Software
NI-VXI is the name of the National Instruments VXI bus control library.
You can create applications using NI-VXI to control both VXI and VME
devices. NI-VXI gives you complete VXI/VME functionality, including
an API for performing basic VXI/VME data transfers and handling
VXI/VME interrupts as well as VXI-specific functionality, such as
doing message-based communication and handling VXIbus triggers.
NI-VISA is the National Instruments implementation of the VISA
specification. VISA is a uniform API for communicating and controlling
Serial, GPIB, VXI, and VME instruments. This API aids in the creation of
more portable applications and instrument drivers.
The NI-VXI/VISA software includes an interactive configuration and
troubleshooting program, libraries of software routines for test and
measurement (T&M) programming, interactive control programs for both
NI-VXI and NI-VISA, a logging utility you can use for debugging your
applications, and a VXI Resource Manager. You can use this software to
seamlessly program multiple-mainframe configurations and have software
compatibility across a variety of controller platforms.
The NI-488.2M software kit gives you access to the industry-standard
NI-488.2M software for controlling external GPIB instruments through the
GPIB port on the front panel of your VXIpc 870 Series. The GPIB interface
on your VXIpc controller is fully compatible with the NI-488.2M driver for
a variety of operating systems. Any software using NI-488.2M will run on
the VXIpc 870 Series.
