National Instruments GPIB-COM Switch User Manual


 
© National Instruments Corporation 1-1 GPIB-COM User Manual
Section One
Introduction
This section contains a brief description of the GPIB-COM interface and a list of its characteristics
and components.
GPIB-COM Characteristics
The National Instruments GPIB-COM is a high-performance talk/listen interface that converts data
between a standard serial port format and IEEE-488 General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB)
format for use with IEEE-488 printers and plotters. It can be used with any serial port software
on the PC. The GPIB-COM looks like a standard serial port to the IBM PC operating system and
software. It can be used to interface IEEE-488 devices to any PC software that uses the serial
ports.
The GPIB-COM has the following hardware features:
emulates the standard PC serial adapter interface so that no additional software is needed
can be configured as either COM1, COM2, COM3, or COM4
compatible with any software using the serial ports on the IBM PC and its compatibles
transparent addressing of unaddressed Talkers and Listeners
choice of talk-only mode for use with listen-only printers and plotters
choice of REN mode, which operates an instrument in the remote mode
choice of SRQ enable, which allows monitoring of asynchronous service requests
choice of IFC mode, which sends an interface clear when the computer is powered on