What is the Loading Behaviour of NI SMU?

Updated Jun 21, 2024

Reported In

Hardware

  • PXI Source Measure Unit

Driver

  • NI-DCPower

Issue Details

I would like to understand the startup mechanism of SMU in Linux.

I understand that in Windows, the controller or host PC will load the FPGA into the SMU board one after another and we can check whether the board is being recognized in Device manager.

If any abnormalities, Windows Device Manager will show the board as unknown PCI devices once we enter the Windows OS.

How about Linux OS? Is the startup and loading behavior the same as in Windows? And where can I check the board status in Linux OS?

Solution

For a more accurate explanation. the Operating System (OS) will identify the instruments by looking at their PID and VID. Because the driver is installed, the Operating System will know to load the NI-DCPower driver for these instruments. Then the NI-DCPower driver will proceed to download FPGA images, initialize the hardware, etc.

The startup and loading behavior on Windows and Linux is essentially the same.

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