Agilent Technologies adds NI-488 compatibility

Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced that its I/O Libraries Suite, GPIB cards and converters that work with industry-standard software development environments, such as Agilent VEE Pro and Microsoft development languages, now works with National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW and LabWindows. 

Adding NI-488 compatibility with the existing industry-standard Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA) ensures that test-system developers do not have to struggle with IO hardware and software incompatibility. The I/O Libraries Suite, cards and converters are part of Agilent Open, a program designed to reduce the time and frustration often found in building test systems with products from multiple vendors.

The Agilent I/O Libraries Suite 14.1 dramatically simplifies and accelerates the process of connecting test instruments. It automatically detects instruments connected to a PC, configures the interfaces and verifies the connection even in test systems that mix Ethernet/LAN, GPIB, RS-232, USB and VXI instruments as well as multiple software from multiple vendors.

"Multi-vendor test environments are a reality for engineers connecting test instruments," said Mark Pierpoint, vice president of Agilent's Measurement and Analysis Software Group. "They use different software, hardware and I/O technologies to create new test systems or add to existing ones. The Agilent Open program utilizes open standards-based I/O, software and hardware, significantly reducing the engineering effort, so connecting instruments from multiple vendors is as easy as connecting a printer to a PC."

Agilent I/O Libraries 14.1 is expected to be available in August 2005. More information is available at www.agilent.com/find/iosuiteinfo.