Test and Measurement World just published an article of mine titled “Integrating traditional and modular instruments”. Here I look at the controller, interface and software issues involved when combining traditional LXI instruments with modular VXI, PXI or AXIe instruments. It’s not as difficult as it seems, as the industry is converging on two physical interfaces: LAN and PCIe (PCI Express).  In this article I explain the differences between message-based and register-based instruments, and how the SCPI, VISA and IVI standards are layered and play together. My goal is to remove the mystery around these topics. You can read the article here.