Test instrumentation I/O communication interface and method
US6389491B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 23, 1999 |
| Grant date | May 14, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 23, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01R31/31912
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A universal I/O interface is presented which allows communication with a number of different instruments independent of the underlying I/O configuration. The universal I/O interface is a set of Component Object Model (COM) interfaces that are independent of the underlying I/O bus and API. In addition, the universal I/O interface allows instrument data to be parsed and instrument commands to be formatted in a programming language independent way. In the preferred embodiment, the universal I/O interface comprises an ActiveX Automation Server that abstracts the APIs for various possible underlying I/O buses and vendor software libraries into a single universal I/O interface. This allows instrument application programmers to design applications that are universally supported on any number of instrument I/O buses.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.