National Instruments Corporation

Jon Bellin

James A Grey

Scott A Rust

Douglas Melamed

Nigel G D'Souza

Erik Crank

Ronald Byrd

Matthew D Kisler

Methods and measurements systems are disclosed relating to use of a soft front panel (SFP) to display results of measurement functions. A measurement device may concurrently perform two or more measurement functions to produce two or more respective signal measurements, wherein each measurement function comprises an acquisition function and a processing function. A computer may be configured to display information on a soft front panel on the display device corresponding to two or more of the signal measurements. The computer may receive, from a user, a selection of an update option, wherein the update option indicates a trigger that causes the displayed information to update. Responsive to receiving an indication that the trigger has occurred, the computer may update the displayed information on the soft front panel.

Soft front panel for concurrent radio frequency measurements

A method for creating a computer program to be executed by a plurality of threads, in which the method utilizes a technique for execution synchronization referred to herein as a batch synchronization section. According to this technique, a plurality of threads may be associated with one another as a 'batch' of threads. Each thread in the plurality (batch) of threads may execute the computer program simultaneously. The batch synchronization section may specify a portion of the computer program for which the execution of the portion by the plurality of threads is to be synchronized. In one embodiment different types of batch synchronization sections may be specified, wherein each type of batch synchronization section performs a different type of execution synchronization. In one embodiment the method may enable execution synchronization behavior for multiple concurrent executions of a test executive test sequence to be specified. The test sequence may include one or more batch synchronization sections. Multiple threads may each execute an instance of the test sequence to concurrently to test a group of units under test, and the batch synchronization sections may coordinate the execution of the multiple threads where necessary.

System and method for synchronizing execution of a batch of threads

A method for creating a computer program to be executed by a plurality of threads, in which the method utilizes a technique for execution synchronization referred to herein as a batch synchronization section. According to this technique, a plurality of threads may be associated with one another as a &ldquo;batch&rdquo; of threads. Each thread in the plurality (batch) of threads may execute the computer program simultaneously. The batch synchronization section may specify a portion of the computer program for which the execution of the portion by the plurality of threads is to be synchronized. In one embodiment different types of batch synchronization sections may be specified, wherein each type of batch synchronization section performs a different type of execution synchronization. In one embodiment the method may enable execution synchronization behavior for multiple concurrent executions of a test executive test sequence to be specified. The test sequence may include one or more batch synchronization sections. Multiple threads may each execute an instance of the test sequence to concurrently to test a group of units under test, and the batch synchronization sections may coordinate the execution of the multiple threads where necessary.

System and method for performing batch synchronization for a test sequence

A system and method for controlling an instrumentation system, wherein the present invention includes an improved instrument driver software architecture. The instrument driver software architecture of the present invention provides a number of features, including improved simulation features. The system may comprise a computer system comprising a CPU and memory. The memory of the computer system may store a user application, a class driver, and a class simulation driver. The user application is operable to perform an application using an instrument, wherein the instrument is of a first class. The class driver is operable to receive calls from the user application, wherein the class driver is common to a plurality of instruments of the first class. The class driver may then call a class simulation driver, wherein the class simulation driver is operable to simulate operation of the instrument. For example, the class simulation driver may be operable to simulate output values and return values of function calls. The class simulation driver is preferably operable to simulate operation of the plurality of instruments of the first class. The memory may also store a specific driver which is specific to the respective instrument. The class simulation driver may be operable to simulate operation of at least a portion of the specific driver. The class simulation driver may also be operable to simulate operation of at least a portion of the specific driver for each of the plurality of instruments of the first class.

System and method for simulating operations of an instrument

A system and method for controlling an instrumentation system, wherein the present invention includes an improved instrument driver software architecture. The instrument driver software architecture of the present invention provides a number of features, including instrument interchangeability, i.e., the use of interchangeable virtual instruments or interchangeable instrument drivers, improved performance, an improved attribute model, improved range checking, and improved simulation features, among others.

Instrumentation system and method which performs instrument interchangeability checking

A test executive program which provides greatly improved configurability and modularity, thus simplifying the creation, modification and execution of test sequences. The test executive program includes process models for improved flexibility, modularity and configurability. Process models provide a modular and configurable entity for encapsulating operations and functionality associated with a class of test sequences. The process model thus encapsulates a &ldquo;testing process&rdquo; for a plurality of test sequences. The process model enables the user to write different test sequences without repeating standard testing operations in each sequence. The test executive program also includes step types for improved configurability. A step type is a modular, identifiable unit configured by the user which defines common properties and/or operations associated with a plurality of steps. Instances of the step type incorporate this common functionality and/or properties from the step type, and thus the user is not required to hard code that functionality and/or properties in each instance or step. The test executive program also provides distributed type storage and conflict resolution. When the user loads a file which includes a stored type, the method performs conflict resolution, including determining if the loaded type conflicts with one or more previously loaded/registered types. If the types do conflict, then the test executive or user selects a type, preferably using the version data associated with each type. The test executive system also performs automatic result collection to automatically collect the results of each step. The user can enable or disable result collection for a particular sequence or for the entire test station.

Test executive system and method including step types for improved configurability

Instrumentation system and method including an improved driver software architecture

Instrumentation system and method having instrument interchangeability

Instrumentation system and method including an improved driver software

A method and apparatus for performing runtime checking during program execution in a compiled environment using the full ANSI-C programming language. The present invention detects a number of errors during runtime that cannot be found by a compiler at the precise moment that a respective C language restriction is violated. The present invention also provides the user with a direct indication of the problem, thus saving debugging time. The runtime checking features of the present invention further detects when a user is using library functions improperly. When C source code is compiled, the present invention allocates special data structures for every pointer, array and structure object in the program. An association is made between each of these objects, and its special data structure in the compiler symbol table. At runtime, these data structures contain status information about their associated objects. The present invention also inserts special machine language instructions for C expressions during compilation that either modify values in the special data structures or call internal runtime checking functions according to the present invention that use the information in the respective data structures to determine whether an expression is illegal and report errors if necessary. The runtime checking features of the present invention include a method for specifying precise restrictions on the arguments that may be passed to library functions. These restrictions are used to determine whether arguments to library functions conform to their respective restrictions and reports any violations to the user at runtime, indicating which argument caused the error and which restriction was violated.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Jon Bellin