User guide

8 RealCT Direct API Developer Guide
Chapter 1: Architecture
Application Programming Interface
The Application Programing Interface (API) is the interface
between an application and the device drivers. The interface is
a set of commands the application issues to the device driver.
The device driver then sends the commands to the firmware on
the board. The RealCT Direct API is defined by a set of C header
files consisting of the following:
Function Tags
Data structures
Parameters
Errors
You can find detailed information about the RealCT Direct API
in the RealCT Direct API Reference Manual.
Function Tags
Function tags are the tags used with the BrktDeviceIoControl ()
API call. Each of the device drivers has exclusive and
non-exclusive function tags. Exclusive functions prevent other
exclusive functions from running simultaneously on a specific
device. This means that you can call only one exclusive function
at a time for any specific device.
Function tags used to set parameters or retrieve status from the
driver are non-exclusive. You can call non-exclusive functions
while an exclusive function is running.
Data Structures
The data structures contain the parameters and data used by or
returned by the drivers. When you call a driver function that
passes parameter values like RHT_SET_GLOB or
RHT_SET_PARAM in its data structure, these values override
standard parameter values set when the device driver is loaded.