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:

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:

Pacific Mindworks is a leading developer of IVI technology. It offers several white
papers on IVI:
 The "LambdaGenPS" IVI drivers and some "Getting Started" tutorials are available from
the TDK-Lambda website:
8303460000 Rev A
http://www.ivifoundation.org/
http://www.pacificmindworks.com/
http://www.us.tdk-lambda.com/hp/product_html/drivers.htm
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