Use NI-VISA vs. HP/Agilent VISA

Whether you use NI-VISA or HP/Agilent VISA depends on the manufacturer of your GPIB and VXI controllers. The difference between NI-VISA and HP/Agilent VISA is in the interface to the hardware. If you are using National Instruments VXI and GPIB controllers, you should use NI-VISA. HP/Agilent VISA would not know how to communicate with a National Instruments board such as an external controller, for example. Conversely, if you are using an HP GPIB or VXI controller, you should use HP/Agilent VISA. You cannot use a GPIB controller board and a VXI controller from a different manufacturer together with VISA. The API for HP/Agilent VISA and NI-VISA is the same, however; thus, to the programmer there is no difference when writing code for one or the other.

You may use National Instruments and Hewlett-Packard GPIB-VXI controllers with either implementation of VISA. When using a GPIB-VXI in your system, the manufacturer of the GPIB controller board determines which VISA you should use.