Seeking avice from an expert in programming

If I have posted in a wrong thread, I'm sorry. I can't find a thread that appropriately matches my question. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

I am embarking on a project to build my own hardware diagnostics application. I will have to learn a new language to do this.
I've been programming in JAVA and PHP, but have zero experience in lower level languages. My question is this:
Is C++ ideally suited for this type of application, or would another language be more appropriate? I have only a vague idea of C/C++, or any other low level language can do. Thanks in advance.

> I am embarking on a project to build my own hardware diagnostics application.
This is a tall order if you don't know C or C++ already, and you're not familiar with the problems of programming "on the bare metal" as it were.

1. Check you have a C compiler for your target hardware
2. Check to see IF you have an operating system on that hardware.
3. Make sure you have all the specifications and data sheets for all the chips, ports, devices etc which are accessible on that hardware.

There's a whole bunch of other stuff as well...

WOW! I did not realize the complexity of my project. Sounds perfect! You have given me some things to research. Thanks so very much.