Overview - Agilent Technologies N9340B Programmer's Manual

2 Programming Fundamentals

Overview

SCPI Language Basics
10
This section is not intended to teach you everything about
the SCPI (Standard Commands for Programmable
Instruments) programming language. The SCPI Consortium
or IEEE provides that level of detailed information.
Programming with SCPI requires knowledge of:
• Computer programming languages, such as C, C++, and
Microsoft®Visual Basic®.
• The language of your instrument. The N9340B employs
SCPI as its programming language.
The semantic requirements of your controller's language
determine how the programming commands and responses
are handled in your application program.
SCPI is an ASCII- based instrument command language
designed for test and measurement instruments, with the
goal of reducing automatic test equipment (ATE) program
development time.
SCPI accomplishes this goal by providing a consistent
programming environment for instrument control and data
usage. This consistent programming environment is achieved
by the use of defined program messages, instrument
responses, and data formats across all SCPI instruments.
By providing a consistent programming environment,
replacing one SCPI instrument with another SCPI instrument
in a system will usually require less effort than with
non- SCPI instrument.
SCPI is not a standard which completely provides for
interchangeable instrumentation. SCPI helps move toward
interchangeability by defining instrument commands and
responses, but not functionality, accuracy, resolution, etc.
N9340B Programmer's Guide