Software environments for the implementation of virtual instrumentation

In this paper the authors present and discuss in detail the several software platforms that are nowadays used to implement virtual instrumentation. It is aimed at the systematization of the various classes of software in order to propose some guidelines for the selection of the right packages for the application in mind. Besides, as the performance of any PC based instrument depends not only on the hardware and software used but also, on their level of compatibility, some special attention is paid to some non-trivial aspects related to the choice of hardware/software.