The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 19, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 09, 2000
Meg F. Kay, Cupertino, CA (US);
Jonathan Brumley, Austin, TX (US);
Howard Tsoi, Austin, TX (US);
Kurt Carlson, Austin, TX (US);
National Instruments Corporation, Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A data acquisition system comprising a Configuration Manager for intelligently managing access to DAQ configuration information. The data acquisition system comprises a computer system coupled to a data acquisition device, a data acquisition application (user application) executing on the computer system, and DAQ driver level software executing on the computer system. The memory of the computer system stores a hardware database which includes information on DAQ objects in the DAQ system, and the memory stores configuration files which comprise desired configurations of the DAQ system. The Configuration Manager of the present invention executes in the computer system to control access to the hardware database and configuration files stored in the computer system. The present invention also includes a method for providing access to information on data acquisition (DAQ) objects in the DAQ system. The Configuration Manager accesses the configuration information from the system memory if the configuration information comprises modified parameter values stored in the memory, and the Configuration Manager otherwise accesses the configuration information from the hardware database. The present invention also includes a method for providing access to additional or new information on data acquisition (DAQ) objects in a DAQ system. The user of the DAQ system can receive an updated hardware database, and an existing configuration file can automatically access the additional capabilities of the DAQ object from the installed updated hardware database.