Programming Using Ivi Drivers; Ivi Description; Ivi Support - TDK-Lambda Genesys Series User Manual

8. PROGRAMMING USING IVI DRIVERS

8.1. IVI Description

In the test and measurement industry, the "Interchangeable Virtual Instrument" is a set of specifications
which standardize instrument driver technology. IVI is built upon the VISA hardware drivers. IVI has interfaces
so almost any programming language can use standard calls to .NET, COM and DLL libraries.
The IVI instrument can be configured with a management utility such as National Instruments
Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) program or the Agilent I/O Libraries. IVI settings may also be
made programmatically through optional parameters.
These allow several benefits to measurement system designers:
• IVI standardizes common functions to reduce the time needed to learn a new IVI instrument. You do
not need to learn the Genesys™ power supply's SCPI commands.
• Instrument simulation allows developers to run code without an instrument.
• Automatically perform a status check to verify each power supply setting is acceptable.
• IVI drivers feature a variety of wrappers to allow simple interfacing to a variety of Windows programming
environments.
• IVI drivers provide for interchangeability. Interchangeability allows easy swapping of instruments without
changing the control program.

8.2. IVI Support

There are a variety of websites that give additional information on IVI including:
• The IVI Foundation home page has good "Getting Started" tutorials for a variety of programming
languages:
http://www.ivifoundation.org/
• Pacific Mindworks is a leading developer of IVI technology. It offers several white papers on IVI:
http://www.pacificmindworks.com/
• The "LambdaGenPS" IVI drivers and some "Getting Started" tutorials are available from the TDK-Lambda
website:
http://www.us.tdk-lambda.com/hp/register.htm
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