It's not required unless you want to use the IVI driver instead of the one you already have. IVI stands for Interchangable Virtual Instrument. The IVI Foundation (www.vivfoundation.org)was formed several years ago to address the problem of having programs written for specific instruments and then having to replace that instrument for a different model or from a different manufacturer. Especially in the case for a different manufacturer, the test program would have to modified. Certain classes of instruments (scopes, dmm, power supplies, etc.) were defined and a common set of functions were determined. When you call into an IVI driver,
that common set of functions gets translated into the specific commands for a particular instrument. So, if you use the IVI class drivers in LabVIEW for a power supply from Agilent and want to start using one from someone else, you install the IVI driver from the different manufacturer, tell MAX you want to use that new driver, and you're done. No modification to your LabVIEW program is required. For some users, this is an enormous benefit. Personally, I don't use it much now because few of the instruments I use have an IVI class specification and the IVI Foundation has been very slow in defining and releasing new ones. There are also LabVIEW techniques to make interchangeable drivers without depending on IVI. Another downside to the LabVIEW programmer is that you can't modify the driver. An IVI driver is written in LabWindows/CVI so you would have to buy that and learn C programming to make any changes. My personal preference is to have a native LabVIEW driver if available and use th
e IVI driver only when time doesn't permit me to create one in LabVIEW.
So, it kind of depends on your preferences and future plans. You can go
here for more information on IVI.