Transitioning from ATLAS to LabWindows/CVI: overcoming the obstacles

As the DoD eyes a move toward the use of Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) software development environments, such as National instruments LabWindowsTM/CVI, for the generation of Test Program Sets (TPS), a few obstacles still remain. In particular the need to handle resource and path allocation, the ability to describe UUT behavior in terms of signals, and the use of simple, multi-action verbs are at a minimum, necessary. By design, LabWindows/CVI, a test-oriented superset of the ANSI C specification, grants the test engineer full control of all aspects of the TPS design process, including full instrument and path control. However, this methodology also has ifs drawbacks; the engineer is forced to define and control all actions, assets and paths explicitly. As the complexity of today's test programs increase, the need to simplify implementation is imperative to reduce TPS cost and complexity. This paper describes a method to simplify the implementation of CVI and how it is currently used with commercially available tools. Some of the technologies used are based, in part, on the IEEE 1226 standards defined by the ABBET (A Broad-Based Environment for Test) committee of SCC20 and work done in a prototype effort performed by the ATS IR&D IPT (ARI). Additionally, interchangeable Virtual Instrumentation (IVI) drivers, as currently being defined by the IVI foundation and higher-level wrapper functions are also considered.