What is NI GPIB?

What is GPIB?

The General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) is an industry standard published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) as ANSI/IEEE Standard 488. GPIB defines the electrical, mechanical, functional, and software specifications of an interfacing system to connect PCs to programmable instruments.

• History of GPIB: Learn about the history and evolution of the GPIB
• GPIB Hardware and Software Specifications: Read details of the IEEE 488.1 and IEEE 488.2 specifications
• The HS488 Protocol: Find out about the HS488 protocol originally developed by NI and later standardized by the IEEE

NI GPIB Product Family

NI GPIB products fall into six broad categories:

• Plug-In Controllers: GPIB controllers for plug-in buses such as PCI Express, PCI, PXI, and PCMCIA
• External Controllers: GPIB converters for control of GPIB instruments through buses such as USB, Ethernet, RS232, and IEEE 1394
• Support Products: GPIB extenders, expanders/isolators, and mechanical switches
• Software: NI-488.2 host-side and NI-Device device-side software
• ASICs: TNT high-performance and NAT drop-in replacement GPIB controller chips
• Cables and Accessories: GPIB cables, adapters, and rack-mount kits