GPIB

GENERAL PURPOSE INTERFACE BUS

Raymond Giron, Adam Bahr, George Asbeck

History

Originally developed by HP in the 1960’s

Wanted an easier way to interface the instruments and controllers

Other companies started using it and named it the General Purpose Interface Bus

The device was standardized in 1975 by the IEEE and again in 1978 and 1987

IEEE 448.1 is the standard for the connector, while IEEE 488.2 is the control command standard

Characteristics

Total of 24 pins on the device 8 pins for data, 8 for ground, 5

for bus management and 3 “handshake” pins

Connected devices can be talkers, listeners, or controllers

Wires are “double-headed” with a male connector on one side and female on the other

Advantages

Rugged connector that is screwed in place

Well established and supported by many devices

Fast and slow devices can be used in the same system

Up to 15 connectors can be stacked together

Disadvantages

Connector is large and bulky Cable and connector are more expensive

to make than others such as USB Maximum transfer rate is around 8

Mbits/s USB 3.0 can transfer at 5 Gbits/s Not a standard connector on modern PCs

Sources http://www.hit.bme.hu/~papay/edu/GPIB/tutor.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE-488

http://digital.natinst.com/public.nsf/$CXIV/ATTACH-AEEE-7E8RYX/$FILE/GPIB.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IEEE-488-Stecker2.jpg

http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~ftwang/ee202/Week7/gpib.jpg