Block Oriented Instrument Software Design
A new method for writing instrumentation software is proposed. It is based on the abstract description of the instrument operation and combines the advantages of a reconfigurable instrument and interchangeability of the instrumentation modules. The proposed test case is the implementation of a microwave network analyzer for nonlinear systems based on VISA and plug and play instrument drivers.
Modern Instruments or Instrumentation setups are likely to be built-up around generic hardware and custom software. The disadvantage is that the amount of software required to operate such a device is very high. An acceptable development time for a reasonably low number of software bugs can therefore only be obtained if the software is maximally reused from earlier developments. Most attempts used a two-step approach. In the first step transport interface between computer and instrument is abstracted. The first step in this approach has always been quite successful. The first transport abstraction stems from the IEEE-488 interface. Afterward SICL and VISA were developed to support multiple transport busses (IEEE-488, RS-232 and later Ethernet and IEE-1394). These methods use a file as the conceptual model for an instrument. The commands sent to the files are independent of the transmission medium, medium dependency is localized only in the initialization call. Most interfaces that can be used for instrumentation control are, hence, supported by these frameworks.
In the second step the instrumentation command is abstracted to empower interchangeability of similar pieces of instrumentation. For this, the situation always has been much less obvious. Only end-users have something to gain in instrument interchangeability. An abstract model to programming instrumentation setups is proposed which is easy and general enough to be used for complex setups.
A new method for writing instrumentation software is proposed. It is based on the abstract description of the instrument operation and combines the advantages of a reconfigurable instrument and interchangeability of the instrumentation modules. The proposed test case is the implementation of a microwave network analyzer for nonlinear systems based on VISA and plug and play instrument drivers.
Modern Instruments or Instrumentation setups are likely to be built-up around generic hardware and custom software. The disadvantage is that the amount of software required to operate such a device is very high. An acceptable development time for a reasonably low number of software bugs can therefore only be obtained if the software is maximally reused from earlier developments. Most attempts used a two-step approach. In the first step transport interface between computer and instrument is abstracted. The first step in this approach has always been quite successful. The first transport abstraction stems from the IEEE-488 interface. Afterward SICL and VISA were developed to support multiple transport busses (IEEE-488, RS-232 and later Ethernet and IEE-1394). These methods use a file as the conceptual model for an instrument. The commands sent to the files are independent of the transmission medium, medium dependency is localized only in the initialization call. Most interfaces that can be used for instrumentation control are, hence, supported by these frameworks.
In the second step the instrumentation command is abstracted to empower interchangeability of similar pieces of instrumentation. For this, the situation always has been much less obvious. Only end-users have something to gain in instrument interchangeability. An abstract model to programming instrumentation setups is proposed which is easy and general enough to be used for complex setups.
