Chapter 3
NI-VXI Software Installation and Configuration
© National Instruments Corporation
3-7
VME-AT2000/NI-VXI MS-DOS Getting Started
Configuring the NI-VXI Software
Run
VXIINIT
to display the AT-MXI configuration settings. The AT-MXI is configured in
hardware as Resource Manager (Logical Address 0) and Message-Based device, and cannot be
changed. The default configuration is MXIbus System Controller, not MXIbus fair requester,
base I/O address of 340h, master window base of D000h, and no VXI Shared RAM. To change
the current settings, or to view the configuration options, run
VXIEDIT
and select the
Configuration Editor from the main menu.
You can use the Non-VXI Device Editor from the main menu to configure your non-VXI (VME)
devices. Be sure to specify a unique pseudo-logical address for each VME device. The pseudo-
logical address can be any value between 256 and 511 inclusive. It is recommended that you
start with 256 for your first device, and then give each subsequent device the next higher
number. Assigning pseudo-logical addresses to your VME devices ensures that the Resource
Manager program recognizes your VME devices when it configures your interface hardware.
You can also enter manufacturer name, model name and other identification information for your
VME devices. Be sure to configure the
InSystem?
parameter to instruct the Resource
Manager that this particular VME device is indeed installed in your system.
Keep in mind that the Resource Manager will only use the configuration information for those
devices that you indicated
InSystem
. When the Resource Manager executes, it displays
information regarding the configuration of the interface hardware and your VME devices by
referencing their assigned pseudo-logical addresses and device names.
You can enter configuration information for each VME device in your system either individually
as unique VME devices, or collectively by considering the overall address space requirements of
your VME devices as one logical VME device. By using
VXIEDIT
to configure the address
space requirements, the Resource Manager can automatically enable the hardware windows
through which your PC AT can access the corresponding VME addresses where your VME
devices reside. You can also run
VXIEDIT
at any time to examine the software configurations.
You can also use this program to configure interrupts and the utility bus for single-mainframe or
multiple-mainframe system configurations. For more details on how to use
VXIEDIT
, refer to
the remainder of this chapter and to the NI-VXI DOS Utilities Reference Manual.
Running VXIEDIT
VXIEDIT.EXE
is the VXI resource editor program. You can use this program to configure the
system, edit the manufacturer name and ID numbers, and edit the model names of VXI and non-
VXI devices in the system, as well as the system interrupt configuration information. This
program also displays the system configuration information generated by the Resource Manager.
To run
VXIEDIT
from any directory, make sure that the
PATH
environment variable has the
destination directory of the NI-VXI software added to it. This program uses the different
configuration files (
*.CFG
), table files (
*.TBL
), and help files (
*.HLP
) in its execution. Be
sure that the environment variable
NIVXIPATH
is set to the destination directory of the NI-VXI
software for proper execution. The default destination directory pathname used by the program
is
C:\NIVXI
.
