About Keysight IO Libraries Suite

IOLS Suite is composed of several programs, utilities and libraries, outlined below.

What programs and utilities are in IOLS Suite, and where can I find documentation?

The Keysight IO Libraries Suite is available for no extra charge with Keysight instruments, interface hardware, and software products, and is available on the Web (www.keysight.com/find/iosuite). This release includes support for Linux. See below for information on which products and utilities are supported in which operating system, and where to find help.

IOLS product or utility Windows Linux Windows On ARM Where do I find help?

Connection Expert — Displays the status of your instruments, chassis, and interfaces. In Connection Expert, you can change interface and instrument properties (such as addresses, timeouts, and baud rates); test and troubleshoot connections; and get access to software and online information for your specific instruments.

Start Connection Expert from IO Control.

Launch Connection Expert from IO Control.

To see help, within Connection Expert, click ? in the top toolbar and select Help.

Or open IO Control > Documentation menu > Connection Expert Help.

Instrument Discovery Service — Discovers many of the instruments physically connected to your PC (including GPIB, USB, and PXI). All these instruments are shown in Connection Expert's Instruments view automatically. Instruments connected via a serial (COM port) or if they are on the LAN must be added manually. (Runs in the background.) See the About Instrument Discovery and Identification topic in the Connection Expert help (this help file).

InteractiveIO — Lets you quickly send commands to instruments and read responses. Start InteractiveIO from IO Control. Within Interactive IO, use the Help menu.

IOMonitor utility — Traces the I/O calls of targeted library layers. Start IOMonitor from IO Control. Within IOMonitor, use the Help menu.

VISA programming API / library — (Virtual Instrument Software Architecture) An industry-standard I/O API. It can be used to develop I/O applications and instrument drivers that are interoperable with many other VISA applications from many vendors, and that comply with IVI Foundation standards. IO Control > Documentation menu > VISA Help

SICL programming API / library — (Standard Instrument Control Library) An I/O library developed by Keysight that is portable across many I/O interfaces. It is included in the Keysight IO Libraries Suite for backwards compatibility; VISA and VISA COM are recommended for development of new test programs.
IO Control > Documentation menu > SICL Help

ViFind64 — (Windows) / ViFind (Linux) — Debug utility launched from IO Control or a console window; used to find resources and 64-bit VISA implementations. The ViFind64 / ViFindtopic in this help file.

Not sure which programming library to use? See Which I/O API Library Should I Use?

IOLS product or utility	Windows	Linux	Windows On ARM	Where do I find help?
Connection Expert — Displays the status of your instruments, chassis, and interfaces. In Connection Expert, you can change interface and instrument properties (such as addresses, timeouts, and baud rates); test and troubleshoot connections; and get access to software and online information for your specific instruments. Start Connection Expert from IO Control.				Launch Connection Expert from IO Control. To see help, within Connection Expert, click ? in the top toolbar and select Help. Or open IO Control > Documentation menu > Connection Expert Help.
Instrument Discovery Service — Discovers many of the instruments physically connected to your PC (including GPIB, USB, and PXI). All these instruments are shown in Connection Expert's Instruments view automatically. Instruments connected via a serial (COM port) or if they are on the LAN must be added manually. (Runs in the background.)				See the About Instrument Discovery and Identification topic in the Connection Expert help (this help file).
InteractiveIO — Lets you quickly send commands to instruments and read responses. Start InteractiveIO from IO Control.				Within Interactive IO, use the Help menu.
IOMonitor utility — Traces the I/O calls of targeted library layers. Start IOMonitor from IO Control.				Within IOMonitor, use the Help menu.
VISA programming API / library — (Virtual Instrument Software Architecture) An industry-standard I/O API. It can be used to develop I/O applications and instrument drivers that are interoperable with many other VISA applications from many vendors, and that comply with IVI Foundation standards.				IO Control > Documentation menu > VISA Help
SICL programming API / library — (Standard Instrument Control Library) An I/O library developed by Keysight that is portable across many I/O interfaces. It is included in the Keysight IO Libraries Suite for backwards compatibility; VISA and VISA COM are recommended for development of new test programs.				IO Control > Documentation menu > SICL Help
ViFind64 — (Windows) / ViFind (Linux) — Debug utility launched from IO Control or a console window; used to find resources and 64-bit VISA implementations.				The ViFind64 / ViFindtopic in this help file.