IVI comes of age: An overview of IVI specifications with current status

IVI stands for Interchangeable Virtual Instruments; the IVI Foundation was formed in 1997 and is a consortium founded to promote standard specifications for programmable test instruments. The foundation focuses on the needs of users who build high performance test systems. By building on existing industry standards, such as VXIplug&play driver concepts, the Foundation´s goal is to deliver specifications that simplify interchangeability, provide better performance, and maintainable test programs. To date, only a few IVI drivers have been available. In the past year, the IVI Foundation finished a major revision of it´s architecture and has released a blizzard of specifications, increasing its IVI Class specification by 80% and dramatically improving the consistency and quality of released drivers. The DoD has expressed major interest in IVI´s success. With the recent successful completion of the current set of specifications, DoD is interested in becoming involved in defining the next set of Class Specifications. The NxTest Working Group lists IVI as a key technical element, and DoD has recently requested that the IVI Foundation consider Electro Optical equipment for their next set of Class Specifications; a Working Group has been formed to more clearly define this activity.