Chapter 3
Developing Your Application
PCI-Based MXI-2 Interfaces for Windows 2000/NT/Me/98
3-2
ni.com
provide a high level of performance; however, there may be some
slight changes in behavior for certain applications.
Your software features several system development utilities including
MAX, Resman, NI Spy, VISA Interactive Control (VISAIC), and VXI
Interactive Control (VIC, optional). You can also access online help and a
variety of examples to learn how to use NI-VXI for certain tasks.
Each component assists you with one of four development steps:
configuration, device interaction, programming, and debugging.
You can access the utilities, help files, and release notes through the
Windows
Start
menu by opening the
National Instruments»VXI
or
National Instruments»VISA
program groups.
Configuration
The configuration utilities in your software kit are Resman and MAX.
Resman performs VXI Resource Manager functions as described in the
VXIbus specification. Resman configures all devices on the VXI backplane
for operation and allocates memory for devices that request it. Resman does
not require you to specify any settings; it automatically performs the VXI
resource management whenever you run it.
Note
Power cycling resets all devices, so you must run Resman to reconfigure your
system every time you cycle the power on the chassis.
MAX presents a graphical display of your entire test and measurement
system to help you configure various components. When you launch MAX,
you see all your devices (including VXI and VME) on the screen. You can
view the properties (such as logical address, address space, and so on) of
each device by clicking on the device in the configuration tree. To see
additional configuration options for a given device, right-click on the
device in the configuration tree. When you access the properties of most
National Instruments devices by right-clicking, you can configure the
hardware settings by selecting
Hardware Configuration
.
MAX and Resman are designed to work together. You can run Resman
through MAX by either clicking on the
Run VXI Resource Manager
button in the toolbar or right-clicking on a specific VXI system on which
to run Resman (see Figure 3-1). You can also select
Tools»NI-VXI»
VXI Resource Manager
to run Resman on all VXI systems. From the
VXI Options
dialog in the
Tools»NI-VXI
menu, you can use MAX to
