A system and method for creating a graphical program which accesses
registers of a hardware device. In one embodiment, a register access node
or primitive may be included in a graphical program, such that when the
graphical program is executed on the computer system, the register access
node is operable to access (i.e., either read or write) registers of a
hardware device in the computer system. The method may comprise first
displaying a register access node in the graphical program in response to
user input. For example, the user may select the register access node
from a palette and drag and drop the register access node onto a window
of the graphical program being created. The user may then configure the
register access node to access one or more registers of a selected
hardware device, e.g., by using a user interface for performing this
configuration. In one embodiment, the computer may store a description of
the hardware device, wherein the register access node uses the
description of the hardware device to access registers of the hardware
device during execution of the graphical program. In one embodiment,
configuring the register access node may include displaying a list of
registers or a list of fields of registers described in the description
of the hardware device and receiving user input to select one or more of
the registers from the list of registers. The list may also or instead
comprise a list of mnemonic names of registers and/or a list of mnemonic
names of fields in the registers. The user may thus configure the
register access node to access selected registers described in the
description of the hardware device.