National Instruments VXI-SC-1102 - Manual (Page 15)

Chapter 1 Introduction
© National Instruments Corporation 1-5 VXI-SC-1102/B/C User Manual
NI-DAQ Driver Software
The NI-DAQ driver software is included at no charge with all National
Instruments DAQ hardware. NI-DAQ is not packaged with accessory
products. NI-DAQ has an extensive library of functions that you can
call from your application programming environment. These functions
include routines for analog input (A/D conversion), buffered data
acquisition (high-speed A/D conversion), analog output
(D/A conversion), waveform generation, digital I/O, counter/timer
operations, SCXI, RTSI, self-calibration, messaging, and acquiring
data to extended memory.
NI-DAQ has both high-level DAQ I/O functions for maximum ease
of use and low-level DAQ I/O functions for maximum flexibility and
performance. Examples of high-level functions are streaming data to
disk or acquiring a certain number of data points. An example of a
low-level function is writing directly to registers on the DAQ device.
NI-DAQ does not sacrifice the performance of National Instruments
DAQ devices because it lets multiple devices operate at their peak
performance.
NI-DAQ maintains a consistent software interface among its different
versions so that you can change platforms with minimal modifications
to your code.