Synthetic instrument

Typically the generic SMS hardware is dual cascade of three subsystems: digital processing and control, analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog conversion (codec), and signal conditioning.

[citation needed] An analogy to this relationship between specific measurement hardware versus generic hardware with its function totally defined in software is the relationship between specific digital circuits and a general purpose CPU.

Even if they do have such provisions, they may not typically be applied that way by users, especially if the system encourages non-abstracted access to hardware.

Synthetic instruments in test and measurement are conceptually related to the software synthesizer in audio or music.

Of course, a significant difference in these concepts is that musical instrument synthesizers typically only generate musical sound, whereas a synthetic instrument in test and measurement may be equally likely to generate or to measure some signal or parameter.

In this case, the PC and accompanying software is supplementing the analysis and presentation capabilities of the natural instrument.

The SIWG defines a synthetic instruments (SI) as: A reconfigurable system that links a series of elemental hardware and software components with standardized interfaces to generate signals or make measurements using numeric processing techniques.