Chapter 1 Introduction
© National Instruments Corp. 1-3 STD-GPIB for Windows
Software Description
The STD-GPIB uses the NI-488.2 driver software for the AT-GPIB/TNT. The NI-488.2
software for Windows includes a Windows dynamic link library, language interface
libraries, and debugging and development utilities. The NI-488.2 software and GPIB
hardware transform a STD/STD32 system into a GPIB Talker/Listener/Controller that
has complete communications and bus management capability.

ni-pnp Utility Overview

The ni-pnp utility is a small program that runs each time you reboot your system. It
collects information about National Instruments interfaces in your system. In systems
that are Plug and Play ready, ni-pnp simply retrieves the current configuration of each
interface. In systems without Plug and Play system software, ni-pnp performs the
actual configuration of each interface. ni-pnp does not select the resources to assign to
interfaces. If your system does not assign resources, you must run the GPIB software
configuration utility to assign resources to the GPIB interfaces. After the configuration
of each interface is determined, ni-pnp provides this information to the NI-488.2
driver.
Optional Programming Environments
Your kit includes the NI-488.2 software for Windows. In addition, you can order the
LabWindows®/CVI or LabVIEW software from National Instruments.
LabWindows/CVI and LabVIEW include instrument driver libraries that make it easier to
communicate with your GPIB instruments.
LabWindows/CVI is an interactive ANSI C development environment for building test
and measurement and instrument control systems. It includes interactive code-generation
tools and a graphical editor for building custom user interfaces. It also includes built-in
libraries for IEEE 488.2, VXI, RS-232 control, and plug-in data acquisition. When you
order LabWindows/CVI, you also get more than 300 complete instrument drivers, which
are modular, source-code programs that handle the communication with your instrument
so that you do not have to learn the programming details.
LabVIEW is a complete programming environment that departs from the sequential
nature of traditional programming languages and features a graphical programming
environment. It includes all the tools needed for instrument control, data acquisition,
analysis, and presentation. LabVIEW also includes an extensive instrument driver
library.
For more information about LabWindows/CVI and LabVIEW, contact National
Instruments.