National Instruments GPIB-COM - Manual (Page 10)

© 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