HP VXI E1432A manual What is VXIplug&play?, Overview, VXIplug&play drivers

HP E1432A User's Guide

Using the HP E1432A

What is VXIplug&play?

Hewlett-Packard uses VXIplug&play technology in the HP E1432A. This section outlines some of the details of VXIplug&play technology.

Overview

The fundamental idea behind VXIplug&play is to provide VXI users with a level of standardization across different vendors well beyond what the VXI standard specifications spell out. The VXIplug&play Alliance specifies a set of core technologies centering on a standard instrument driver technology.

HP offers VXIplug&play drivers for VEE-Windows. The VXIplug&play instrument drivers exist relative to so-called “frameworks”. A framework defines the environment in which a VXIplug&play driver can operate. The HP E1432A has VXIplug&play drivers for the following frameworks: Windows 95, Windows NT, and HP-UX.

VXIplug&play drivers

The HP E1432A VXIplug&play driver is based on the following architecture:

U s e r P ro g ra m (.E X E & .H LP file s, s u c h a s a s s o ft fro n t p a n e l)

F u n c tio n Pa n e l (b a s e d o n .F P file

P ro g ra m m a tic D e v e lo p e r's In te rfa c e Lib ra ry

In s tru m e n t D riv e r

(.K B, .D LL, .C , .H , .LIB, .H LP file )

V TL/V ISA

I/O In te rfa c e

Figure 3-7: VXI Plug&Play driver architecture

It is most useful to discuss this architecture from the bottom up.

The VISA/VTL I/O interface allows interoperability of the VXIplug&play driver technology across interfaces.

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