Supported Platforms
This help file describes how to use NI-VISA, the National Instruments implementation of the VISA I/O standard, in any environment using LabWindows/CVI, any ANSI C compiler, or Microsoft Visual Basic. NI-VISA currently supports the frameworks and programming languages shown in the following table. For information on programming VISA from LabVIEW, refer to the VISA documentation included with your LabVIEW software. For information on programming VISA from Measurement Studio, refer to the VISA documentation included with your Measurement Studio software.
| Windows Vista 64/ Vista 32/XP/2000 | LabVIEW RT (Phar Lap ETS) | LabVIEW RT (VxWorks) | LabVIEW PDA | Linux x86 | Mac OS X (PPC) | Mac OS X (x86) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPIB |  | | | | |||
| GPIB-VXI | | | | | |||
| VXI | | | |||||
| Serial | | | | | | | |
| PXI/PCI | | | | | | ||
| TCPIP | | | | | | | |
| Remote Client | | | | | | ||
| Remote Server | | | | | | | |
| ENET Serial | | | | | | | |
| USB | | | | | | | |
| FireWire | | |
On Windows Vista/XP/2000, NI-VISA supports the WINNT and GWINNT frameworks defined by the VXIplug&play Systems Alliance and the IVI Foundation. There are no defined system frameworks on the other platforms.
The VXIplug&play Systems Alliance developed the concept of a framework to categorize operating systems, programming languages, and I/O software libraries to bring the most useful products to the most end-users. A framework is a logical grouping of the choices that you face when designing a VXI system. You must always choose an operating system and a programming language along with an application development environment (ADE) when building a system. There are trade-offs associated with each of these decisions; many configurations are possible. The VXIplug&play Systems Alliance grouped the most popular operating systems, programming languages, and ADEs into distinct frameworks and defined in-depth specifications to guarantee interoperability of the components within each framework. To claim VXIplug&play compliance, a component must be compliant within a given framework.
With this version of NI-VISA, you can perform message-based and register-based communication with instruments, assert triggers, share memory, and respond to interrupts and triggers. For VXI, you can also perform register accesses at the interface level and mainframe-specific control and monitoring of utility lines. For GPIB, you also can perform board-level commands and the control and monitoring of bus lines. NI-VISA provides all the I/O functionality that you need for your test and measurement applications.