The Software Breadboard Technique of Virtual Instrument

To assemble virtual instrument applications by prefabricated blocks, a software breadboard is proposed. The idea is borrowed from the breadboard that is used in the circuit. In the method, pipelines are defined as the software wires and pipeline components are defined as the software ICs. When pipeline components are linked together by pipelines, they can form a system automatically, which is driven by data streams in pipelines. In this way, a software breadboard of virtual instrument can be realized and it can be used to assembling virtual instrument applications by plugging software ICs onto it. To record the assembling procedure of virtual instrument applications on the software breadboard, a XML script language is also proposed in the paper. At last, the software breadboard, the XML script interpreter and software ICs are integrated together to form a virtual instrument IDE, which can be used to assemble virtual instrument applications.