Ni-Daq Driver Software - National Instruments AT-MIO-16 User Manual

Chapter 1 Introduction

NI-DAQ Driver Software

The NI-DAQ driver software is included at no charge with all National Instruments DAQ
hardware. NI-DAQ is not packaged with SCXI or accessory products, except for the SCXI-1200.
NI-DAQ has an extensive library of functions that you can call from your application
programming environment. These functions include routines for analog input (A/D conversion),
buffered data acquisition (high-speed A/D conversion), analog output (D/A conversion),
waveform generation, digital I/O, counter/timer operations, SCXI, RTSI, self-calibration,
messaging, and acquiring data to extended memory.
NI-DAQ has both high-level DAQ I/O functions for maximum ease of use and low-level data
acquisition I/O functions for maximum flexibility and performance. Examples of high-level
functions are streaming data to disk or acquiring a certain number of data points. An example of
a low-level function is writing directly to registers on the data acquisition device. NI-DAQ does
not sacrifice the performance of National Instruments data acquisition devices because it lets
multiple devices operate at their peak performance—up to 500 kS/s on ISA computers and up to
1 MS/s on EISA computers.
NI-DAQ includes a Buffer and Data Manager that uses sophisticated techniques for handling
and managing data acquisition buffers so that you can simultaneously acquire and process data.
NI-DAQ functions for the AT-MIO-16 can transfer data using interrupts or software polling.
With the NI-DAQ Resource Manager, you can simultaneously use several functions and several
DAQ devices. The Resource Manager prevents multiple-device contention over DMA channels,
interrupt levels, and RTSI channels.
NI-DAQ can send event-driven messages to DOS, Windows, or Windows NT applications
whenever a user-specified event occurs. Thus, polling is eliminated and you can develop event-
driven data acquisition applications. An example of a NI-DAQ user event is when a specified
digital I/O pattern is matched.
NI-DAQ also internally addresses many of the complex issues between the computer and the
DAQ hardware such as programming interrupts and DMA controllers. NI-DAQ maintains a
consistent software interface among its different versions so that you can change platforms with
minimal modifications to your code. Figure 1-1 illustrates the relationship between NI-DAQ and
LabVIEW and LabWindows. You can see that the data acquisition parts of LabVIEW and
LabWindows are functionally equivalent to the NI-DAQ software.
© National Instruments Corporation 1-3 AT-MIO-16 User Manual