National Instruments Corporation

Christopher T Bartz

Kosta Ilic

Brent C Schwan

Geoffrey Schmit

Thomas A Makowski

Jonathan Brumley

An application programming interface (API) for synchronizing multiple devices in a system. The API includes a plurality of functions invocable in a program to synchronize multiple devices, where each function is executable to perform a respective functionality related to synchronizing the devices, and at least one of the functions is executable to access a plurality of instrument drivers corresponding respectively to the plurality of devices to synchronize the plurality of devices. In synchronizing the plurality of devices, the functions determine a trigger clock signal for each of the plurality of devices, and synchronize the plurality of devices based on the determined trigger clock signals. The API also includes a plurality of attributes corresponding to respective properties of the system related to synchronization of the devices, including one or more trigger attributes and/or one or more trigger clock attributes for each of the devices. The API representations may be text-based and/or graphical.

Application programming interface for synchronizing multiple instrumentation devices

System and method for creating measurement applications. The system includes a measurement task specifier for generating a measurement task specification (MTS) for a measurement task in response to user input; an expert system for analyzing and validating the generated MTS, and generating a run-time specification (RTS) for the measurement task; a run-time builder for analyzing the RTS, configuring one or more measurement devices according to the RTS, and generating a run-time which is executable to perform the measurement task. The system includes a storage system for storing the generated MTS, the generated RTS, and configuration information for one or more measurement devices. The expert system includes one or more measurement experts which analyze all or part of the MTS and populate complete or partial RTSs. The partial RTSs are iteratively populated by other experts to form complete RTSs. Competing RTSs may be assessed and a final RTS selected based upon user preferences.

Measurement system software architecture for easily creating high-performance measurement applications

The system and method simplifies communication between a computer control program executing on the computer system and an input/output device coupled to the computer system and is independent of the privilege mode in which the computer program is executing and of the manner in which the input/output device is coupled to the computer system, namely directly such as via an expansion bus versus indirectly such as via a parallel port. An I/O manager provides input/output operation macros, comprising first and second conditional execution portions, along with other related functions. The computer program is compiled from one or more source code files, wherein the source code files employ the input/output operation macros and call other I/O manager functions. The system and method comprises a preprocessor resolving the first conditional execution portion of an input/output operation macro into a direct input/output instruction if compiled for an execution environment with sufficient privilege level and resolving the first conditional execution portion of the macro to a call to a function otherwise. The function causes the computer system to change to kernel mode and executes a direct input/output instruction. The system and method further comprises executing the compiled computer program comprising allocating memory for and populating an instance of a data structure for the I/O manager and determining whether or not the input/output device is coupled to the computer system such that the input/output device registers are directly accessible to the computer program through a direct input/output instruction. Next, the input/output operation to the input/output device is performed by executing the first conditional execution portion of the input/output operation macro to the input/output device if the input/output device is directly coupled to the computer system or executing the second conditional execution portion of the input/output operation macro, which is a function, if the input/output device is not directly coupled to the computer system, wherein the function performs the input/output operation by executing a plurality of direct input/output instructions.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Christopher T Bartz