Chapter 1 Overview of NI-VXI
NI-VXI User Manual 1-2 © National Instruments Corporation
Reserved
Reserved
Reserved
Reserved
Data Low
Data High
Response/Data
Extended
Protocol/Signal
Offset
Status/Control
Device Type
ID Register
VXI Configuration
Space
Offset
3F
20
IE
1C
1A
18
0E
0C
0A
08
06
04
02
00
• Upper 16 KB of A16
space reserved for 
VXI configuration space
• 64 bytes per device
• 8-bit logical
address specifies
base address for
each device
• 256 devices per
VXI system
Device
Dependent
Registers
Reserved 
by VXIbus
Specification
A32 Pointer Low
A32 Pointer High
A24 Pointer Low
A32 Pointer High
16
14
12
10
Shared Memory
Protocol
Registers
Communication
Registers
Required for VXI
Message-Based
Devices
Configuration
Registers
Required for all
VXI Devices
Figure 1-1. VXI Configuration Registers
Register-Based Devices
Through the use of the VXI configuration registers, which are required
for all VXI devices, the system can identify each VXI device, its type,
model and manufacturer, address space, and memory requirements.
VXIbus devices with only this minimum level of capability are called
register-based devices. With this common set of configuration
registers, the centralized Resource Manager (RM), a software module,
can perform automatic system configuration when the system is
initialized.