Promoted content: Protect your instrumentation with software

By Adri Kruger, LabVIEW Product Manager

For over 50 years, test engineers have been taking a PC-based approach to automating stand-alone instrumentation. With so much investment tied up in capital assets for test equipment, engineers are looking for reassurance that they can satisfy current and future testing needs. While capital expenditure on hardware is often the easiest cost to associate with test, the importance of a good software investment is commonly overlooked. Instrumentation will continue to evolve, but one thing remains consistent over time – software. Software is at the heart of every instrument control system, and it can help you future proof your application.

Abstracting instrument communication with software

Over the past decade, instrumentation systems have evolved and grown more complex. Today’s test systems often mix communication buses and different instruments from a variety of vendors leading to hybrid test systems. The biggest challenge in ensuring long-term operation of hybrid test systems resides at the software layer.