Runnable and Not Runnable Measurements (Measurements tab)

A measurement is categorized as Runnable or Not Runnable based on Acquistion Mode and hardware conflicts. The set of all measurements that do not have conflicts with the currently selected measurement and each other, are placed into the Runnable group, and the set of all measurement that do have conflicts are placed in the Not Runnable group.

Hardware Conflicts

Hardware conflict detection depends upon the Acquisition Mode.

Synchronous Acquisition Mode Hardware Conflicts

A hardware conflict exists between measurements when the measurements are independent (Shared check box cleared) and

use the same hardware analyzer configuration, or
use analyzer configurations that include a common instrument

Runnable measurements are grouped based upon whether they are Shared or not (in other words, Independent).

Shared measurement groups: a Shared group consists of two or more measurements that share the same analyzer configuration and have their Shared check boxes selected.
Independent measurements: measurements that use different, non-conflicting analyzer configurations.

For more information about acquisition configuration, see Acquisition Modes and Concurrency .

Sequenced Acquisition Mode Hardware Conflicts

A hardware conflict exists between measurements when they use analyzer configurations that include a common instrument, but aren’t the same hardware analyzer configuration. All runnable measurements are in a single Sequenced group.

Runnable Measurements

Runnable measurements are the set of measurements that can run concurrently based on the Selected measurement and on the order of the measurements. The buttons in the Runnable Measurement Controls toolbar can apply to all or a subset of the runnable measurements (Restart, Pause, Record, etc.).

How the set of runnable measurements is determined

The selected measurement (Selected radio button filled) is always runnable. To determine which other measurements are runnable, the algorithm evaluates each measurement in the collection of all measurements defined in the VSA, starting from the beginning. Each measurement is tested for hardware conflicts with the measurements currently in the Runnable collection. If there is no conflict, the measurement is added to the Runnable collection. The algorithm continues until all measurements have been inspected. Any measurement that was not added to the set of runnable measurements is shown in the Not Runnable group.

When the selected measurement is changed, the set of runnable measurements is re-evaluated. Note that selecting a different measurement from the current collection of runnable measurements can result in a different set of runnable measurements. This is because the algorithm is dependent on the selected measurement and the measurement order.

Synchronous Acquisition Mode Runnable Groups

Shared/Runnable group

Shared measurements are specified by choosing a common analyzer configuration and selecting the Shared acquisition property for each measurement. All Shared measurements are grouped into a Shared collection whose title includes the name of the shared analyzer configuration. Individual measurements in a shared group are all Runnable or Not Runnable. In other words, if one shared measurement is runnable, then all shared measurements in the group are runnable (and vice versa).

Changing the time and frequency parameters for one of the measurements in a shared group can affect the other shared measurements. The VSA requires that the combination of the measurement's center frequencies fit within the measurement hardware's analysis bandwidth. When a measurement's center frequency is changed, the VSA will adjust the other measurement's center frequencies to keep them within the analysis bandwidth of the shared Analyzer Configuration.

The Spectrum Map shows a visual representation of all shared measurement center frequencies in the Measurements dialog.

Independent/Runnable group

Any measurement not shared with another runnable measurement (using the same Analyzer Configuration) is put in the Independent group in the Runnable section. There is only one Independent/runnable group.

Sequenced Acquisition Mode Runnable Groups

Sequenced/Runnable group

All sequenced measurements are runnable unless their Analyzer Configurations conflict (see next section for details). There is only one Sequenced/runnable group.

Not Runnable Measurements

The set of all measurement that have hardware conflicts with Runnable measurements are placed in the Not Runnable group.

Measurements are not concurrently runnable when the measurements

use different analyzer configurations, but the hardware in their analyzer configurations use the same instrument, instrument IP Internet Protocol: A set of instructions defining how information is handled as it travels between systems across the Internet. address, or VISA address.
• for Synchronous Acquisition Mode, use the same Analyzer Configuration, but one or both of their Shared properties are cleared.