The IEEE-488 standard, also known as GPIB, is a bus interface that connects instruments with a computer to form an ATE system. Today, GPIB is still the most popular interface between computer and instruments. ADLINK"s USB-3488A, LPCI-3488A and LPCIe-3488A controller interface cards are fully compatible with the IEEE-488.2 instrumentation control and communication standard and are capable of controlling up to 14 stand-alone instruments via IEEE-488 cables. The USB-3488A, LPCI-3488A and LPCIe-3488A are designed to meet the requirements of high performance and maximum programming portability.
With APIs that are compatible with NI-488.2* driver software and VISA support, the
USB-3488A, LPCI-3488A and LPCIe-3488A offer the best compatibility with your existing applications and instrument drivers. ADLINK has also implemented GPIB interface on our PXI/ PXIe controller product line.
ADLINK takes advantage of our proven expertise in PCI/PCIe interface cards when developing these GPIB interface cards. The LPCIe/LPCI, in the low-profile PCI form factor, can adapt to most industrial and desktop computers. A 2 KB FIFO between the GPIB bus and PCI controller buffers GPIB read/write operations, eliminating the gap between the slow GPIB bus (approx. 1.5 MB/s) and the fast PCI bus (132 MB/s), dramatically increasing overall system performance. The ADLINK USB-3488A is further equipped with 32 KB FIFO to the read/write operations, for maximum transfer rates exceeding 1.2 MB/s.