.. index::
   single: Hardware Configuration
   single: Library Status
   single: Profiles
   single: Loadouts

.. _hardware-config:

Hardware and Library Configuration
==================================

The Hardware Configuration dialog (**Hardware → Hardware Selection**)
is where Blackchirp is mapped to the physical or virtual instruments
on this system and where vendor-supplied driver libraries are checked
for correct installation. It is the same dialog that opens during
:ref:`first-run-hardware-onboarding` on a fresh system, and it
exposes two tabs: **Hardware Configuration** (profiles and loadouts)
and **Library Status** (optional vendor libraries).

Blackchirp identifies and manages hardware through two layered
concepts:

**Profiles**
   A single physical or virtual instrument. Each profile binds a
   hardware type (for example, FTMW Digitizer or AWG) to a
   human-readable label and a driver. Per-profile settings — number
   of digitizer channels, AWG sample-rate tables, and so on —
   persist across application restarts.

**Loadouts**
   A named collection of profiles that together describe a complete
   instrument: one or more profiles per hardware type, covering
   everything Blackchirp needs to run an experiment. Loadouts make
   it convenient to switch between, say, an 8–18 GHz instrument and
   a 26–40 GHz instrument. A profile may appear in any number of
   loadouts.

A running experiment uses one *active loadout*. The FTMW operating
point used within that loadout — captured as an
:doc:`FTMW preset </user_guide/ftmw_configuration/presets>` — is
managed in the FTMW Configuration dialog and documented under
:doc:`/user_guide/ftmw_configuration`.

.. figure:: /_static/user_guide/hardware_config-overview.png
   :width: 800
   :alt: Hardware Configuration dialog showing the Loadout panel on the left, the Configuration Overview, the Hardware Browser, and the per-profile Configuration panel
   :align: center

   The Hardware Configuration dialog. From left to right: the
   **Loadout** panel (saved loadouts and loadout-level operations),
   the **Configuration Overview** (preview hardware map), the
   **Hardware Browser** (count of profiles per supported type), and
   the **Configuration** panel (per-profile settings for the
   selection). The validation status bar across the bottom reports
   whether the preview is valid; the **Apply Configuration** and
   **Cancel** buttons govern what happens to it.

The dialog operates on a *preview* of the configuration: edits made
in the panels are held in memory until they are persisted to a
loadout (**Save**) or pushed to the running application
(**Apply Configuration**). Typical flow: pick or create a loadout in
the Loadout panel, use the Hardware Browser to add or select a
profile, edit it in the Configuration panel, then **Save** to commit
to the active loadout (or **Save As** for a new one) and **Apply
Configuration** to push to the running app. See
:doc:`hardware_config/loadouts` for full preview-state semantics.

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   hardware_config/profiles
   hardware_config/loadouts
   hardware_config/library_status

.. rubric:: In this chapter

:doc:`hardware_config/profiles`
   How profiles are created, labeled, and managed. Covers the
   Type / Label / Driver triple, the settings priority sections
   (Required, Important, Optional / Advanced), and enabling or
   disabling profiles within a loadout.

:doc:`hardware_config/loadouts`
   What a loadout is, how to create and switch between loadouts, and
   the preview-state semantics that protect against accidental
   discards. Covers the drift-detection prompt that appears when
   hardware changes would invalidate existing FTMW presets.

:doc:`hardware_config/library_status`
   The Library Status tab: vendor-library load state, search-path
   configuration, and per-library installation guidance.

.. seealso::

   :doc:`/user_guide/hardware_menu`

   :doc:`/user_guide/ftmw_configuration/presets` — FTMW operating
   points stored inside a loadout