NI-VISA for Linux

[Gururajan Ramachandran]

We thought VISA was a generic interface to devices covering
VXI, MXI, GPIB, etc... We notice that there are atleast two
products with reference to NI-VISA for Linux:

778130-01 NI-VXI/VISA Linux Support Kit for VXIpc-870, 870B and 770
778131-01 NI-VXI/VISA Support Kit for PCI-MXI-2 and Linux

Can someone please clarify if there is one product that covers
the spectrum of VXI, MXI, GPIB, etc... with reference to
NI-VISA for Linux?

If not, what do we need to cover the full spectrum?

Thanks,

Guru

[Dan_Mondrik]

Guru:

One doesn't normally need to purchase NI-VISA itself, unless you're on a system with no NI instrument control hardware content. If that is your situation, then there is a kit that is available, but it is not searchable on the public web site.

With regard to the 2 kits you found, if you are a VXI user on Linux, then the NI-VXI kit comes with NI-VISA. The reason there are 2 kits is because there are 2 different kernel drivers; one is for the PCI-MXI-2 and the other is for the VXIpc series.

Other NI packages, such as LabVIEW, automatically come with 1 copy of NI-VISA as part of the package. So again, there, you wouldn't need to worry about purchasing a separate copy unless it's for deploying onto other machines.

I hope this makes sense.

Dan
Mondrik
Senior Software Engineer, NI-VISA
National Instruments