Abstract: Disclosed herein is a sprung dispensing tower that includes a vertical housing having an open top and an interior dimensioned to receive products in a vertical stacked relationship. The sprung dispensing tower includes a platform within the interior of the vertical housing, the platform having a horizontal component and platform sidewalls depending from the horizontal component in parallel with respective interior sidewalls of the vertical housing, the platform being vertically slideable within the interior of the vertical housing between an uppermost position and a lowermost position. The sprung dispensing tower includes a compressible spring associated with an underside of the platform and biasing the platform towards the uppermost position. The sprung dispensing tower includes a resiliently compressible slide guide affixed to at least a portion of the platform sidewalls and extending laterally towards the interior sidewalls of the vertical housing.

Abstract: A Wide Area Serial PCI system for connecting peripheral devices to a computer. The WASP system includes a host computer system connected through a serial bus to a remote device. The serial bus can range from several meters to several kilometers or more. The host computer system includes a CPU and memory, and also includes a first Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, also referred to as the local PCI bus. A primary bridge according to the present invention is coupled to the first PCI bus. The primary bridge includes PCI interface circuitry for interfacing to the first PCI bus. The remote device is located remotely from the computer system and comprises a second or remote PCI bus and one or more peripheral devices coupled to the second PCI bus. The remote device also includes a secondary bridge coupled to the second PCI bus. The secondary bridge includes PCI interface circuitry for interfacing to the second PCI bus. The serial bus is coupled between the primary bridge and the secondary bridge.

Abstract: A Wide Area Serial PCI system for connecting peripheral devices to a computer. The WASP system includes a host computer system connected through a serial bus to a remote device. The serial bus can range from several meters to several kilometers or more. The host computer system includes a CPU and memory, and also includes a first Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, also referred to as the local PCI bus. A primary bridge according to the present invention is coupled to the first PCI bus. The primary bridge includes PCI interface circuitry for interfacing to the first PCI bus. The remote device is located remotely from the computer system and comprises a second or remote PCI bus and one or more peripheral devices coupled to the second PCI bus. The remote device also includes a secondary bridge coupled to the second PCI bus. The secondary bridge includes PCI interface circuitry for interfacing to the second PCI bus. The serial bus is coupled between the primary bridge and the secondary bridge.

Abstract: A Wide Area Serial PCI system for connecting peripheral devices to a computer. The WASP system includes a host computer system connected through a serial bus to a remote device. The serial bus can range from several meters to several kilometers or more. The host computer system includes a CPU and memory, and also includes a first Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, also referred to as the local PCI bus. A primary bridge according to the present invention is coupled to the first PCI bus. The primary bridge includes PCI interface circuitry for interfacing to the first PCI bus. The remote device is located remotely from the computer system and comprises a second or remote PCI bus and one or more peripheral devices coupled to the second PCI bus. The remote device also includes a secondary bridge coupled to the second PCI bus. The secondary bridge includes PCI interface circuitry for interfacing to the second PCI bus. The serial bus is coupled between the primary bridge and the secondary bridge.

Abstract: An optical correlator system having a plurality of both active and passive reflective optical components between a source of electromagnetic radiation, such a visible coherent light, and an output detector array in a planar support body along a folded optical axis beam path within the body uses a ferro-electric liquid crystal spatial light modulator as the input sensor and the correlating filter to provide enhanced optical detection of an unknown object at a CCD detector array.

Abstract: A VXI chassis which has user selectable or configurable slot 0 locations. The VXI chassis includes a personality module interface coupled to the VXI backplane comprised in the chassis. The personality module interface or slot is adapted to receive a personality module. The personality module can be inserted into the personality module interface or slot in one of a plurality of orientations. Based on the orientation of the inserted personality module, the personality module is operable to selectively route signals on the backplane to enable one of a plurality of locations to operate as the slot 0 location. In the preferred embodiment, the VXI chassis can house a plurality of C size and/or B size VXI/VME cards, and the VXI chassis is configurable between different slot 0 locations for different size cards, i.e., between either a C-size or B-size slot 0 controller.

Abstract: A system and method for increasing the performance of read cycles in instrumentation systems having multiple interconnected buses by converting the read cycles into write cycles and taking advantage of the write posting and FIFO buffering capabilities of the bus interface logic between each of the interconnected buses. When a requestor device desires to initiate a read cycle of memory situated on the same or a different bus, the requestor device first creates a data transfer packet containing information about the desired data. The requestor device then generates a write cycle to DMA logic situated near the memory desired to be read. The DMA logic uses the 32 bit address provided from the requestor device, to obtain information about the transfer and then initiates DMA write cycles to perform the desired transfer. Since each bus interface bridge includes write posting capability, the write operation can be performed much more efficiently than a read operation.

Abstract: A system and method for controlling a computer-based instrumentation system which provides simplified application development and improved performance for instrumentation systems. The present invention provides a system including a software architecture which defines the control and management of an instrumentation system. The present invention includes a base object class, an object manager, session and resource classes, and one or more resource templates. The instrumentation system of the present invention provides a plurality of instrument control resources which are used as building blocks to create instrument drivers and higher level applications. The present invention also uses object oriented technology which allows device resources to be easily combined to create higher level applications. The present invention is independent of I/O interface type, operating system, and programming language while also providing a common look and feel and consistent API to the user.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling instrumentation systems and for providing a user with the capability to develop instrument drivers and application software for controlling instrumentation systems. The present invention provides a system including a software architecture which defines the control and management of an instrumentation system. The method of the present invention utilizes a device resource independence approach whereby the individual capabilities of devices are broken down into a plurality of objects called resources and these resources are then used to develop instrument drivers or instrument control applications. The method of the present invention also uses object oriented technology which allows device resources to be easily combined to create higher level applications. The present invention is independent of I/O interface type, operating system, and programming language while also providing a common look and feel and consistent API to the user.

Abstract: A system and method for improved handling of events in an instrumentation system which provides numerous features and advantages over prior art methods. The present invention provides simplified application development and improved performance for instrumentation systems. The instrumentation system of the present invention provides event queueing, event handling, and suspend handling features, thus providing the user or developer with greater freedom in designing his test and measurement or process control application. The present invention includes a single operation referred to as viEnableEvent which is used for enabling events of all event types, and a single operation for installing handlers for all event types, referred to as viInstallHandlr. The operation viEnableEvent includes one or more parameters which can be specified as a filter to qualify the types of events desired to be received at the time of the event occurrence.

Abstract: A system and method for developing instrument drivers and applications in a computer-based instrumentation system. The present invention provides simplified application development and improved performance for instrumentation systems. The instrumentation system of the present invention provides a plurality of instrument control resources which are used as building blocks to create instrument drivers and higher level applications. The present invention also uses object oriented technology which allows device resources to be easily combined to create higher level applications. The present invention is independent of I/O interface type, operating system, and programming language while also providing a common look and feel and consistent API to the user. A developer creates a resource in the VISA system by first determining if the desired resource can inherit from a currently existing resource.

Abstract: An instrumentation system according to the present invention which automatically demultiplexes multiplexed data received from multiple analog channels. The system includes a plurality N of analog channels that are multiplexed into an A/D converter. The A/D converter in turn supplies the multiplexed or interleaved digital data to an external computer where the data is stored in memory. The external computer includes direct memory access (DMA) demultiplexing logic according to the present invention which automatically reads the multiplexed data and rewrites the multiplexed data into a non-interleaved or demultiplexed format. Once all the multiplexed digital data has been received and stored in the computer system, the demultiplexing logic of the present invention performs DMA transfers to demultiplex or de-interleave the data into N independent buffers or memory spaces which are no longer interleaved.

Abstract: A system and method for performing more efficient hardware context switches in a computer-controlled instrumentation system including a computer system which controls a plurality of instruments. The instrumentation system includes a direct memory access transfer device which performs various data transfers between the computer system and the various instruments. The direct memory access transfer device includes different hardware contexts for different transfers, and the DMA transfer device automatically configures itself to different contexts with minimal CPU involvement. For each process or thread requiring a different DMA transfer device context, the CPU prepares the context information and stores the context in memory. The CPU then provides a request list to the DMA transfer device including interleaved context pointers and data transfer packets.

Abstract: A system and method for enabling applications written for NI-VXI driver level software to operate with a session-based VISA system. The present invention receives driver level function calls from applications developed for the NI-VXI driver level library, opens sessions to the appropriate VISA resources and performs the necessary operations on these resources. This enables a VISA system to operate in conjunction with applications written for the NI-VXI driver level library. When a call to the NI-VXI function InitVXIlibrary is received, the method allocates one or more arrays which are used later for storing session identifiers to sessions created to corresponding VISA resources. When the system later receives a call to a function in the NI-VXI driver level library, the method first determines which VISA resources correspond to this function. The method either opens sessions to these resources or retrieves the session parameters from the respective arrays if sessions have already been created.