Interpret the slogan “The software is the instrument” referring to the concept of virtual instrumentation.

[gwood311]

I am currently revising for an exam and one of the questions is as above. Could soemone help me to answer this question as concisely as possible.

thanks 

[allaba]

I remember that (at least in the pre-LV5.0 days) there was a continuation of that slogan:
"The software is the instrument...
...the hardware is the revenue"

But that was probably never true, since then NI should had given away LabVIEW for free...

-Franz

[smercurio_fc]

I think the answer depends on what the definition of "is" is.

[waldemar.hersacher]

The main though behind that slogan was that software can do all the things a measurement instrument can do and a lot more. It was aimed on the fact, that the functionality of an instrument is made by software and not by hardware any more.

[PaulG.]

LabVIEW:  "Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench". I think the keyword here is "virtual", and the virtual part is created with the software.

[Bob_Y.]

The idea is that once you can capture the "real-world" data, the manipulation of that data does not have to be performed via hardware instruments, but can be performed via software "virtual" instruments.  This means that you no longer have to buy new hardware to get new functionality, you can design it in software. 

The US Military and other US Government agencies have renamed this to synthetic instruments (to not use trade-marked phrases).  Some research on that could lead to more insight as well.

Hope that this helps,
Bob Young