Since only one “visa32.dll” can be registered at a time, rev K of the Agilent I/O libraries provides a second DLL named “agvisa32.dll”. Revision K of the Agilent I/O libraries has addressed these issues and provided an alternative: the side-by-side installation of the Agilent I/O libraries and NI-VISA. But, if the programming environment required the use of NI-VISA, it was impossible to communicate using PnP drivers through these Agilent interfaces. As long as all other devices in the test system could be accessed through Agilent VISA, there was no conflict. If the program used PnP drivers, the possibilities were even more limited since PnP drivers require the use of VISA and cannot work with SICL alone. Any program that accessed instruments through these interfaces required the use of Agilent SICL or Agilent VISA. The E2050B LAN to GPIB gateway and its software counterpart, the SICL/LAN server fell into this category. Both Agilent and NI had devices that could only be accessed through their respective I/O libraries. Although in most situations the improvements made by rev J were sufficient, there were still situations that were problematic. (Note: NI-VXI can only be configured by the Agilent I/O config utility if you have the NI-VXI driver rev 2.5 or above, but below 3.0). Thus it was possible to use Agilent VISA with the E9850A VXI embedded controller made by NI and sold by Agilent (now obsolete – replaced by the E9851A). With revision J of the Agilent I/O libraries, providing “tulip” drivers that could talk to NI-GPIB and NI-VXI, this conflict was partly solved. It soon became evident that this was not an acceptable solution. At one time, the recommended solution was to use only one vendor’s hardware and software. Agilent I/O Libraries and NI Software For a number of years, test engineers have struggled with incompatibilities between hardware and software from different vendors.
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