Using The Status Registers; Why Would You Use The Status Registers - Agilent Technologies N9360A Programming Manual

Programming Command Guideline
4

Using the Status Registers

Why Would You Use the Status Registers?

4-16
The system status comprises of multiple registers that are
arranged in a hierarchical order. The lower-priority status
registers propagate their data to the higher-priority registers in
the data structures by means of summary bits. The Status Byte
Register is at the top of the hierarchy and contains the general
status information of the Tester of events and conditions of the
Tester. All other individual registers are used to determine the
specific events or conditions.
You can determine the state of certain instrument events and
conditions by using the status register system.
Individual status registers can be set and queried using the
commands in the IEEE common commands reference. A status
register is actually composed of five physical registers: one
condition register, two transition registers, one event enable
register and one event register. However, the Standard Event
Status Register is composed of an event enable register and an
event register.
In general, your program often needs to be able to detect and
manage error conditions or changes in instrument status. To
detect the changes using the polling method, the program must
repeatedly read the registers to monitor the condition as
follows:
Determine which register contains the bit that reports the
1
condition.
Send the query that reads that register.
2
Examine the bit to see if the condition has changed.
3
N9360A Multi UE Tester GSM Programming Manual