Question About Future .NET 8 Support for NI .NET Driver APIs

[Martin_Huber]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently developing automated electronic test applications using NI hardware and NI’s .NET APIs. Since the .NET ecosystem continues to evolve and .NET Framework is becoming increasingly legacy, I’m wondering about NI’s future plans regarding .NET 8 support for the NI .NET driver APIs (such as NI‑DCPower, NI‑Switch, NI‑DMM, VISA, etc.).

I’m aware that TestStand recently announced or introduced support for executing .NET 8 assemblies, which is great progress. However, for hardware‑level driver APIs, I haven’t found any official roadmap or statement regarding:

• Upcoming support for .NET 6/7/8 (or later)
• Possible migration of the existing .NET Framework‑based APIs
• Plans for native .NET (Core) APIs or long‑term compatibility
• Whether existing C‑API wrapper–based .NET layers may be modernized

Could someone from NI (or anyone with insight) share whether upgrading the NI .NET driver APIs to .NET 8 (or newer .NET versions) is planned?

This information is really important for long‑term architecture decisions in our automated test systems, especially since we rely on high‑performance, repeated hardware calls.

Thanks in advance for any information!

[Oli_Wachno]

Hi Martin,

I couldn't find any public information on this either.

Having said this: since your question is specific about drivers, you might wnat to repost it in the appropriate forum

https://forums.ni.com/t5/Multifunction-DAQ/bd-p/250

[santo_13]

I believe NI will be working on it as the EU-CRA compliance deadline is next year.

[Petru_Tarabuta]

Hi Martin,

I am not able to provide any insight unfortunately, but I think it is a very valid question. I am looking forward to learning the answer to your question (by monitoring this thread).

[Deborah_B]

NI is phasing in .NET core driver support, starting with NI-VISA, which was completed in 2025. We are targeting NI-DAQmx and other modular instrument drivers next but with no committed date. Our .NET Framework assemblies are useable from a .NET Core environment. Until we deliver .NET Core bindings for our driver APIs, we suggest you bundle those assemblies with your applications as-is.