©
National Instruments Corporation
B-1
B
Using the DMAmove and
CDS-852 Adapter Code
Instruments
This appendix contains instructions for installing and using the National Instruments-
supplied Code Instruments (CIs). Two CIs come standard in the firmware of the
GPIB-VXI/C. The first CI is called the
DMAmove
CI and is used for dedicating one of the
GPIB-VXI/C GPIB addresses for use as a high-speed memory port. The second CI is used for
controlling one or more Colorado Data Systems (CDS) 73A-852 adapter modules.
Note
The NI-VISA CI is the recommended way to perform DMA with your GPIB-VXI.
The main purpose of the GPIB-VXI/C is to convert GPIB protocols to VXI protocols.
However, many features within the VXI environment are not possible with GPIB. Much of
this has to do with the memory-mapping architecture of VXI. The DMAmove CI gives you
very fast and direct access to VXI A16 and A24 memory, as well as to local GPIB-VXI/C
memory. The 68070 DMA channel 2 is used within the DMAmove CI to move data around
much more quickly than the VXI Word Serial protocol or individual peeks and pokes.
The 73A-852 is a non-VXI device with communication registers located in A24 space
rather than in A16 space. To communicate with the 852 adapter as a Message-Based
device, the 73A-852 requires special adapter software. The GPIB-VXI/C performs the
Message-Based-to-852 communication translation with a CI. The GPIB-VXI/C firmware
release includes one CDS-852 Position Independent CI. This CI implements the configuration
and translation functions required to communicate with up to 12 CDS-852 adapter modules
via the GPIB.
Using EPROMed Code Instruments
This section discusses how to install, execute, and delete an EPROMed Code Instrument.
Installing an EPROMed Code Instrument
You can install an EPROMed Code Instrument (the DMAmove and CDS-852 CIs are
examples) either by configuring the nonvolatile configuration parameters or by using the
GPIB-VXI/C local command set command
ECIboot?
. This section explains how to use the