National Instruments Corporation

Abhay Shah

Hugo A Andrade

Samson L DeKey

Bob Mitchell

Todd Brower

Jogen Pathak

A system and method for controlling a computer-based instrumentation system which provides simplified application development and improved performance for instrumentation systems. The present invention provides a system including a software architecture which defines the control and management of an instrumentation system. The present invention includes a base object class, an object manager, session and resource classes, and one or more resource templates. The instrumentation system of the present invention provides a plurality of instrument control resources which are used as building blocks to create instrument drivers and higher level applications. The present invention also uses object oriented technology which allows device resources to be easily combined to create higher level applications. The present invention is independent of I/O interface type, operating system, and programming language while also providing a common look and feel and consistent API to the user. The present invention includes novel methods for access control, event handling, resource management, and resource addressing, among others.

System and method for controlling an instrumentation system

A method and apparatus for controlling instrumentation systems and for providing a user with the capability to develop instrument drivers and application software for controlling instrumentation systems. The present invention provides a system including a software architecture which defines the control and management of an instrumentation system. The method of the present invention utilizes a device resource independence approach whereby the individual capabilities of devices are broken down into a plurality of objects called resources and these resources are then used to develop instrument drivers or instrument control applications. The method of the present invention also uses object oriented technology which allows device resources to be easily combined to create higher level applications. The present invention is independent of I/O interface type, operating system, and programming language while also providing a common look and feel and consistent API to the user. The present invention includes novel methods for access control, event handling, resource management, and resource addressing, among others.

Method and apparatus for controlling an instrumentation system

A system and method for developing instrument drivers and applications in a computer-based instrumentation system. The present invention provides simplified application development and improved performance for instrumentation systems. The instrumentation system of the present invention provides a plurality of instrument control resources which are used as building blocks to create instrument drivers and higher level applications. The present invention also uses object oriented technology which allows device resources to be easily combined to create higher level applications. The present invention is independent of I/O interface type, operating system, and programming language while also providing a common look and feel and consistent API to the user. A developer creates a resource in the VISA system by first determining if the desired resource can inherit from a currently existing resource. If the resource desired to be created can inherit from an existing resource, then the developer creates session and resource classes from the base classes that are being inherited from. If the developer determines that a resource does not currently exist from which the resource can inherit, then the developer inherits from the base session and resource classes provided in a VISA system. After either of the above steps, the developer creates an interface description language for the resource and session classes that have been created for the resource. The interface description language describes the interface for the session and resource classes created for the session. The developer then creates the code which supplements and/or overwrites the code in the existing resource that was inherited from. The code is created to provide operations, attributes, and events for the new resource. Once the code has been created and debugged, then a resource has been created for controlling the particular instrument. In a similar manner, various other types of instrument drivers in higher level instrumentation applications can be created by inheriting from existing resources.

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Loving, TX, United States of America

Abhay Shah