1. A automatic test equipment (ATE) system comprising: at least one processor operatively connected to a memory, the processor when executing is configured to provide: a test program that, when executed by the at least one processor, performs a procedure on test hardware comprising at least one test instrument, the procedure including a request for a test function; an ATE platform including an abstraction layer for decoupling the test program from the test hardware, wherein the abstraction layer includes: a virtual instrument (“VI”) layer without hardware implementation-specific functionality configured to (a) receive at least one request from the test program through at least one virtual instrument virtual instrument (“VI”) interface, wherein said VI interface is implemented as an add-only programming interface using a virtual instrument virtual function table to allow backward-compatible upgrades; (b) map the request from the test program into a function call to a hardware-specific physical instrument layer; (c) communicate the function call to at least one hardware-specific physical instrument layer; a hardware-specific physical instrument (“PI”) layer comprising at least on physical instrument (“PI”) module representing the hardware specific implementation of a test instrument, the physical instrument layer configured to: (a) receive the function call from the virtual instrument layer through a virtual instrument (“VI”) to physical instrument interface (“PI”), wherein said VI to PI interface is implemented as an add-only programming interface using a physical instrument virtual function table to allow backward-compatible upgrades: (b) map the functional call into a hardware specific instruction for at least one test instrument in the test hardware; and (c) communicate the hardware-specific instruction to the test instrument for execution, an interface generation engine configured to generate at least one update to at least one of the VI interface or VI to PI interface, wherein updates are generated only by adding additional functionality to at least one of the virtual instrument virtual function table or the physical instrument virtual function table to ensure backward compatibility.