<s>
An	O
instrument	B-General_Concept
driver	I-General_Concept
,	O
in	O
the	O
context	O
of	O
test	O
and	O
measurement	O
(	O
T&M	O
)	O
application	O
development	O
,	O
is	O
a	O
set	O
of	O
software	O
routines	O
that	O
simplifies	O
remote	O
instrument	B-Architecture
control	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Instrument	B-General_Concept
drivers	I-General_Concept
are	O
specified	O
by	O
the	O
IVI	O
Foundation	O
and	O
define	O
an	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
abstraction	O
layer	O
using	O
the	O
virtual	B-General_Concept
instrument	I-General_Concept
software	I-General_Concept
architecture	I-General_Concept
(	O
VISA	B-General_Concept
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VISA	B-General_Concept
hardware	O
abstraction	O
layer	O
provides	O
an	O
interface-independent	O
communication	O
channel	O
to	O
T&M	O
instruments	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Furthermore	O
,	O
the	O
instrument	B-General_Concept
drivers	I-General_Concept
encapsulate	O
the	O
Standard	O
Commands	O
for	O
Programmable	O
Instruments	O
(	O
SCPI	O
)	O
commands	O
,	O
which	O
are	O
an	O
ASCII-based	O
set	O
of	O
commands	O
for	O
reading	O
and	O
writing	O
instrument	O
settings	O
and	O
measurement	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
instrument	B-General_Concept
driver	I-General_Concept
usually	O
has	O
a	O
well-defined	O
API	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VXIplug&play	O
Systems	O
Alliance	O
was	O
founded	O
in	O
1993	O
with	O
the	O
aim	O
of	O
unifying	O
VXI	B-Architecture
hardware	O
and	O
software	O
to	O
achieve	O
'	O
plug	O
and	O
play	O
 '	O
interoperability	O
for	O
VXI	B-Architecture
and	O
GPIB	O
instruments	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
unifying	O
process	O
,	O
VXIplug&play	O
instrument	B-General_Concept
drivers	I-General_Concept
were	O
also	O
defined	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
When	O
the	O
IVI	O
Foundation	O
took	O
over	O
the	O
Alliance	O
in	O
2002	O
,	O
it	O
defined	O
a	O
new	O
generation	O
of	O
instrument	B-General_Concept
drivers	I-General_Concept
to	O
replace	O
the	O
VXIplug&play	O
standard	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
IVI	O
instrument	B-General_Concept
driver	I-General_Concept
specification	O
intends	O
to	O
overcome	O
the	O
drawbacks	O
of	O
VXIplug&play	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
IVI-COM	O
driver	O
architecture	O
is	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Component	I-Application
Object	I-Application
Model	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
IVI-C	O
drivers	O
are	O
based	O
on	O
C	B-Language
programming	I-Language
language	I-Language
shared	O
components	O
(	O
shared	O
libraries	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
IVI.NET	O
drivers	O
are	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
.NET	B-Application
framework	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Instrument	B-General_Concept
drivers	I-General_Concept
allow	O
quicker	O
development	O
of	O
remote-control	O
applications	O
for	O
instrumentation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
drivers	O
reduce	O
the	O
difficulty	O
of	O
string	O
formatting	O
when	O
using	O
SCPI	O
commands	O
by	O
providing	O
a	O
well-defined	O
API	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
IVI	O
and	O
VXIplug&play	O
Instrument	B-General_Concept
Drivers	I-General_Concept
use	O
the	O
VISA	B-General_Concept
as	O
the	O
hardware	O
abstraction	O
layer	O
so	O
that	O
hardware-independent	O
applications	O
can	O
be	O
developed	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VISA	B-General_Concept
library	O
allows	O
test	O
and	O
measurement	O
equipment	O
to	O
be	O
connected	O
through	O
various	O
hardware	O
interfaces	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
HiSLIP	B-Architecture
(	O
over	O
TCP/IP	B-Protocol
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
standard	O
requires	O
vendors	O
to	O
offer	O
IVI	O
compliant	O
instrument	B-General_Concept
drivers	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
