ADLINK currently provides three major Windows kernel drivers to almost a hundred ADLINK data acquisition and control cards in a variety of form factors, including PCI Express?, PCI, CompactPCI, and PXI.

• PCIS-DASK: Windows kernel driver APIs for NuDAQ PCI/cPCI Series, including
  6208, 6216, 6308, 7200, 7224, 7230, 7233, 7234, 7248, 7250, 7258, 7260, 7296, 7300, 7348, 7396, 7432, 7433, 7434, 7442, 7443, 7444, 7452, 8554, 9111, 9112, 9113, 9114, 9118, 9221, 9810, 9812
• D2K-DASK: Windows kernel driver APIs for DAQ-2000 and PXI-2000 series, including
  2005, 2006, 2010, 2016, 2204, 2205, 2206, 2208, 2213, 2214, 2501, 2502
• WD-DASK: Windows kernel driver APIs for PCI/PXI-9820 High-speed digitizer
  9820

However, drivers for switch series products including PXI-7901, PXI-7921, and PXI-7931, and GPIB interface cards including LPCI/PCI/PXI-3488, are not currently compatible with Windows Vista. ADLINK shall provide the compatible kernel drivers for these products soon.

ADLINK provides both 32-bit and 64-bit kernel driver versions for Windows Vista starting April 2007. The kernel driver versions in PCIS-DASK, D2K-DASK, and WD-DASK also support Windows XP x64 and Windows 2003 Server x64 platforms. As Windows Vista 64-bit version requires 64-bit digitally code signed kernel drivers, all DASK 64-bit kernel drivers can be installed properly under the user-privilege model known as UAC (User Access Control). On a 64-bit operating system, 32-bit applications efficiently run on an emulation of a 32-bit operating system called WOW64 (Windows on Windows 64). WOW64 intercepts calls to the operating system made by 32-bit applications. ADLINK 32-bit applications function normally with WOW64.

ADLINK DASK kernel drivers come as a free upgrade for your entire data acquisition application and guaranteed to improve application performance and productivity. ADLINK have verified the ActiveX Control Sets for ADLINK DAQ products which include PCIS-OCX, D2K-OCX, and WD-OCX and DAQBench - the 32-Bit ActiveX Controls for Measurement and SCADA/HMI - are all function well on Windows Vista 64-Bit edition using the WOW64 subsystem. All device kernel drivers and software updates are now available for download from the ADLINK web site. In addition, ADLINK will verified two major third-party kernel driver support: DAQ-LVIEWPnP for LabVIEW kernel driver and DAQ-MTLB for MATLAB® DAQ Toolbox soon.

Windows Vista product features require advanced or additional hardware. To check whether or not your system can support Windows Vista and to help you determine which version of Windows Vista will run on your computer, you may use the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. To download the tool, visit www.windowsvista.com/upgradeadvisor.

For detailed Windows Vista system requirements, visit www.windowsvista.com/systemrequirements.

Windows Vista includes a new user privilege model known as User Account Control (UAC) that is designed to prevent viruses and other unwanted software applications from gaining control of the system, such as initiating software installation or changing the firewall settings.

Depending on your computer processors, you may choose either a 32-bit or 64-bit edition of Windows Vista. By working with computers that have more than 4 GB of RAM, the 64-bit version of Windows Vista supports memory-intensive applications such as vision acquisition and intense processing applications, and lets you realize performance improvements not possible on 32-bit operating systems. ADLINK's 32-bit software application packages automatically function on a Windows Vista 64-bit platform without the need for user configuration. This is made possible through an operating system abstraction layer known as Windows on Windows (WOW64). However, kernel driver software that runs on the kernel must be 64-bit. The successor to Win32, Windows Vista also features the.NET Framework 3.0 (formerly known as WinFX).

You may immediately incorporate these advanced Windows Vista features into applications associated with your ADLINK DAQ products.

A 64-bit Windows operating system is not necessarily faster than its 32-bit counterpart. It may even perform slower because of the larger pointers and unrelated OS overhead. If your application does not involve large-scale data analysis or high-performance float-point calculation or database, you should carefully consider the need to migrate to Windows Vista x64 Edition. Not every application stands to benefit from the x64 architecture as it will take time for Windows Vista x64 Edition to gain widespread adoption.

To support memory intensive applications that require complex calculations and access more memory, ADLINK is currently developing more 64-bit DLL libraries and sample programs and is verifying product capability to access above 4 GB of memory. ADLINK shall upgrade the function in the third quarter of 2007.

The best resource for the latest information on ADLINK products and support for Windows Vista may be found at http://www.adlinktech.com/MAPS/VistaSupport.html.