Developing Your Application; Ni-Vxi, Ni-Visa, And Related Terms - National Instruments MXI-2 Series Getting Started

Developing Your Application

NI-VXI, NI-VISA, and Related Terms

© National Instruments Corporation
This chapter discusses the software utilities you can use to start developing
applications that use NI-VXI.
After installing the NI-VXI software, you can begin developing a
VXI/VME application. Be sure to check the release notes for the latest
application development notes and changes.
Before you develop an application, it is important to understand the
difference between NI-VXI, NI-VISA, and similar terms:
• NI-VXI is the software package that ships with National Instruments
VXI and VME controllers. NI-VXI includes Measurement &
Automation Explorer (MAX), NI-VISA, NI Spy, Resource Manager
(Resman), VXI device drivers, and other utilities for configuring and
controlling the VXI or VME system.
• NI-VISA is the native API for communicating with VXI/VME devices.
NI-VISA is the National Instruments implementation of the VISA I/O
standard, which is a common interface to many types of instruments
(such as VXI, GPIB, PXI, Serial, TCP/IP, etc.). NI-VXI is optimized
for use through NI-VISA, and NI recommends using NI-VISA to
develop all new VXI/VME applications.
• The NI-VXI API is an optional development environment that is not
part of the default NI-VXI installation. The NI-VXI API was
developed before NI-VISA; while NI-VXI still supports the NI-VXI
API, NI recommends using NI-VISA for all new VXI/VME
applications. If you must develop an application using the older
NI-VXI API, run the NI-VXI installer and select the appropriate option
in the custom installation screen. Be sure to review the
Notes section later in this chapter.
• The NI-VXI compatibility layer allows older programs that use the
NI-VXI API to communicate with VXI devices through VISA. Using
this compatibility layer, older programs can run in NI-VXI 3.0 or later
without being rewritten to use the VISA interface. This layer installs
with NI-VXI by default. It should be completely transparent and
3-1 PCI-Based MXI-2 Interface for Windows
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NI-VXI API