Interoperability
LXI devices can communicate with devices that are not themselves LXI compliant, as well as instruments that employ GPIB, VXI, and PXI, into heterogeneous configurations. In order to simplify communication with non-LXI instruments, the standard mandates that every LXI instrument must have an Interchangeable Virtual Instrument (IVI) driver. The IVI Foundation defines a standard driver application programming interface (API) for programmable instruments. There are currently two IVI driver formats: IVI-COM for working with COM-based development environments and IVI-C for working in traditional programming languages. Most LXI instruments can be programmed with methods other than IVI, so it’s not mandatory to work with an IVI driver; developers can use other driver technologies or work directly with SCPI commands.
Read more about this topic: LAN EXtensions For Instrumentation