Chapter 1 Introduction
Getting Started with Your VXIpc-850 1-2 © National Instruments Corporation
The VXIpc-850 is a custom computer that you install directly in two
C-size slots of your VXIbus mainframe. It can take advantage of the
VXI high-performance backplane capabilities and give you direct
control of VXI registers, memory, interrupts, and triggers.
All models in the VXIpc-850 Series are fully VXIplug&play compliant
and can be used with PC-compatible software tools, the National
Instruments LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI application software, and
the NI-VXI, NI-VISA, and NI-488.2 bus interface software.
For in-depth details on the VXIpc-850 hardware, consult the VXIpc-850
Series User Manual. The VXIpc-850 Peripherals User Manual
describes how to configure and use various peripherals with your
VXIpc-850.
Software Description
The NI-VXI bus interface software for the VXIpc-850 Series includes a
VXI/MXI Resource Manager, graphical and text-based versions of an
interactive VXI resource editor program, a comprehensive library of
software routines for VXI programming, and a VXI interactive control
program. You can use this software to create applications that
seamlessly control multiple-mainframe configurations. These
applications have software compatibility across a variety of VXI
controller platforms.
For more information on installing and configuring the NI-VXI
software, refer to the NI-VXI Software Manual for the VXIpc-850
Series. This manual describes each field in the VXIpc Configuration
Editor of the VXIedit software utility. You can use the NI-VXI
Graphical Utilities Reference Manual and the NI-VXI Text Utilities
Reference Manual to get more information about the VIC or VICtext
utilities and the other configuration editors in VXIedit. Refer to the
NI-VXI Software Reference Manual for C for details about NI-VXI
function calls.

Software Configurations

There are four software configurations described in this manual:
• NI-VXI for DOS/Windows 3.1—you can use this version of the
software to develop and run 16-bit DOS/Windows 3.1 applications.
You can also use this software under Windows 95 if you intend to
use 16-bit applications only.