Chapter 1
Introduction
PCI-Based MXI-2 Interfaces for Windows 2000/NT/Me/98
1-4
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the VXI/VME-MXI-2 module that either can be shared with the
VXI/VMEbus and MXIbus or used as a dedicated data buffer.
VME Users
When used with a VXI-MXI-2, VXI Resource Manager (Resman)
identifies and configures the VXI devices, including the VXI-MXI-2.
When used with a VME-MXI-2, Resman configures the VME-MXI-2 to
allow the PCI-MXI-2 or PXI-8320 to access devices in the VME chassis.
Resman does not configure VME devices. The VME specification does not
include the initialization and configuration procedures that the VXI
specification requires.
If you want to include VME devices in your system, you must enter
information about your VME devices using the
Create Device Wizard
in
Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX). Resman can then properly
configure the various device-specific VME address spaces and VME
interrupt lines. Note that the VME-MXI-2 itself conforms to the VXIbus
register set and is therefore configured automatically by Resman.
For each address space in which your VME device has memory, you must
create a separate pseudo-device entry with a logical address between 256
and 511. For example, a VME device with memory in both A24 and A32
spaces would require two entries. You can also specify which interrupt
level(s) the device uses. Interrupt levels cannot be shared by VXI and VME
devices. After running Resman, you can access the VME device from
NI-VXI just as you would a VXI device, by specifying the address space
and the offset from the base at which you have configured it. NI-VISA
support for VME devices includes the register access operations (both
high-level and low-level) and the block move operations, as well as the
ability to receive interrupts.
Software Description
The NI-VXI bus interface software includes a Resource Manager, an
interactive configuration and troubleshooting program, a comprehensive
library of software routines for VXI/VME programming, a logging utility
you can use for debugging, and graphical interactive control programs for
interacting with your VXI system. You can use this software to seamlessly
program multiple-mainframe configurations and have software
compatibility across a variety of controller platforms.
NI-VISA is the native API for communicating with VXI/VME devices.
NI-VISA is the National Instruments implementation of the VISA I/O
