Tektronix AM700 User Manual

SCPI Conformance Information

AM700 Audio Measurement Set Programmer Manual

Reference: Standard Command for Programmable Instruments, SCPI 1994.

Instruments that conform to the 1993 SCPI standard will be able to meet the
requirements of IEEE Std. 488.1-1987 Standard Digital Interface for Programmable
Instrumentation and IEEE Std. 488.2-1987 Codes, Formats and Common Commands
For Use With IEEE Std. 488.1-1987. Conformance to the standards just mentioned
is not required in recognition that some instruments use hardware interfaces other
than IEEE 488.1-1987, but SCPI is based on the concepts and terminology used by
those standards.

SCPI is not a programming language, it is a standard definition for instrument
commands, parameters, data, and status. SCPI is intended to reduce the program
development time for programmable Automatic Test Equipment. This is accom-
plished by providing a consistent programming environment for instrument control
and data usage. Program messages, instrument responses, and data formats across all
conforming SCPI instruments are defined to be common.

SCPI program commands and parameters are sent from a controller to a SCPI
instrument using IEEE 488.1, VXIbus, RS-232C, or any other recognized interface.
SCPI is layered on top of the hardware-independent portion of the controller-to-
instrument interface.

SCPI instruments are very flexible in accepting a range of commands and parameter
formats, and instrument responses back to the controller can be either data or status
information. Data information can be formatted to be device- and measurement-
independent.

All SCPI instruments conform to the specifications for devices in IEEE 488.2,
except that certain requirements of that standard are not required when an
instrument does not implement an IEEE 488.1 interface. Additionally, a SCPI
instrument can parse <compound command program header> and <compound query
program header> to handle the tree-structured commands in SCPI.