VISA

NI-VISA has been updated to support native Apple Silicon, and a native build has been confirmed in the Rosetta Check community. To update from the Intel version to the native build, visit the National Instruments website, navigate to the NI-VISA product page, and download the latest installer. National Instruments ships a Universal Binary that includes native Apple Silicon support alongside Intel compatibility, so the standard installer will automatically deploy the native version on M-series Macs. Alternatively, if you manage NI drivers through the NI Package Manager (part of the NI Software Installer suite), you can use that to check for and install updated versions of VISA. After updating, your existing VISA instrument connections and configurations will remain in place. Note that while VISA itself now runs natively on Apple Silicon, hardware support is currently limited compared to Intel Macs — according to NI's documentation, LXI, serial, and raw TCP socket connections work on Apple Silicon, but GPIB cards and traditional USB DAQ devices do not yet have native drivers for M-series processors. Check NI's support site for the current list of compatible instruments if you rely on specialized hardware.