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Agilent VISA User’s Guide
4
Programming via GPIB and VXI
GPIB and VXI Interfaces Overview
This section provides an overview of the GPIB, GPIB-VXI, and VXI
interfaces, including:
•
General Interface Information
•
GPIB Interfaces Overview
•
VXI Interfaces Overview
General Interface Information
VISA supports three interfaces you can use to access instruments or
devices: GPIB, VXI, and GPIB-VXI. The GPIB interface can be used to
access VXI instruments via a Command Module. In addition, the VXI
backplane can be directly accessed with the VXI or GPIB-VXI
interfaces.
What is an I/O Interface?
An
I/O interface
can be defined as both a hardware interface and as a
software interface. Connection Expert is used to associate a unique
interface name with a hardware interface. Agilent IO Libraries Suite
uses a
VISA
interface name
to identify an interface. This information
is passed in the parameter string of the
viOpen
function call in a VISA
program.
Connection Expert assigns a VISA interface name to the interface
hardware, and other necessary configuration values for an interface
when the interface is configured. See the
Agilent IO Libraries Suite
Online Help
for details.
VXI Device Types
When using GPIB-VXI or VXI interfaces to directly access the VXI
backplane (in the VXI mainframe), you must know whether you are
programming a
message-based or a
register-based VXI device
(instrument).
A
message-based VXI device
has its own processor that allows it to
interpret high-level commands such as Standard Commands for
Programmable Instruments (SCPI). When using VISA, you can place
the SCPI command within your VISA output function call. Then, the
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