Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments
The Standard Commands for Programmable Instrumentation (SCPI) defines a standard set of commands to control programmable test and measurement devices in instrumentation systems.
The SCPI Standard specifies a command structure and syntax for programmable instruments control. The physical communications link, such as GPIB, RS232, USB, VXIbus etc, is NOT defined by SCPI . SCPI also includes standard command sets for several classes of instruments, e.g. Power Supplies, and measurement devices such as Volt measurment and Digitizers (such as scope).
SCPI commands are in human-readable ASCII format. Because of this, SCPI commands can be sent easily using any programming language including C, C++, Visual Basic, etc. In addition, SCPI is supported by Test Application Software such as Lab View and HP VEE.
For many years, instrument manufacturers have worked to standardize the electrical and mechanical interface between instruments and computers. Little was done, however, to standardize messages sent over this interface. Consequently, instrument manufacturers developed a wide variety of instrument command sets, requiring users to learn a new vocabulary for each instrument. The proliferation of command sets caused users to spend much of their time learning to program instruments, made maintenance of test programs difficult, and made it difficult to upgrade test systems when new equipment became available. (from [1])
In fact, SCPI is yet another effort to conolidate the plathora of formats, languages and methodes to communicate with test and measurment equipment. But like many other similar efforts (e.g. IVI) it failed to be implemented even by the founding members of the SCPI consortium.