GPIB board drivers for Solaris

[Chris Newport]

Rich Teer wrote:

On Thu, 19 May 2005, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:


or read them from your computer. It's been around for the last fifteen
years or so.


Longer than that! I remeber IEEE 488 ports being available for my
BBC Micro, from circa 1982. I think even then it was an established
standard.

I had an HP85 computer hooked up to a spectrum analyser in 1978, and
GPIB was certainly well established and supported by most instrument
vendors by then, so I would guess that it has been around since at least
the early 1970s.
HP invented the standard as HP-IB and it was later adopted as IEEE 488,
which is a published standard.

 

[Tony Williams]

In article <Pine.SOL.4.58.0505191156210.11347@zen.rite-group.com>,
Rich Teer <rich.teer@rite-group.com> wrote:

Longer than that! I remeber IEEE 488 ports being available for
my BBC Micro, from circa 1982. I think even then it was an
established standard.

From Intelligent Interfaces. I still have a backup
spare down in the shed if you are interested.

--
Tony Williams.

 

[Joerg Schilling]

In article <d6jeq7$o4v$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk>,
Chris Newport <crn.news@nospam.netunix.com> wrote:

I had an HP85 computer hooked up to a spectrum analyser in 1978, and
GPIB was certainly well established and supported by most instrument
vendors by then, so I would guess that it has been around since at least
the early 1970s.

We did check radio sets using spectrum analysers and many other
automated HP-IB devices on a HP-1000 in 1975 while I was working for
Telefunken.

The devices did not look really new at that time.

--
EMail:joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
js@cs.tu-berlin.de (uni)
schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
URL: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily

 

[Chris Newport]

Joerg Schilling wrote:

We did check radio sets using spectrum analysers and many other
automated HP-IB devices on a HP-1000 in 1975 while I was working for
Telefunken.

The devices did not look really new at that time.

I think we should be impressed by a standard which has remained in use
unchanged for over 30 years. A design engineer somewhere deserves some
kind of medal.

 

[Thomas Tornblom]

My Tektronix TDS-210 scope I bought a few years ago and added an FFT
and communications module to has GP-IB, RS232 and parallel. I have
only been able to use the serial and parallel yet. Parallel for
producing postscript printouts and serial to control it.

I see their current models can also be equipped with GP-IB.

 

[Huge]

Chris Newport <crn.news@nospam.netunix.com> writes:

Joerg Schilling wrote:

We did check radio sets using spectrum analysers and many other
automated HP-IB devices on a HP-1000 in 1975 while I was working for
Telefunken.

The devices did not look really new at that time.

I think we should be impressed by a standard which has remained in use
unchanged for over 30 years. A design engineer somewhere deserves some
kind of medal.

It likely helps that it's not a consumer standard.

--
"The road to Paradise is through Intercourse."
[email me at huge [at] huge [dot] org [dot] uk]

 

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Huge wrote:

Chris Newport <crn.news@nospam.netunix.com> writes:


Joerg Schilling wrote:



We did check radio sets using spectrum analysers and many other
automated HP-IB devices on a HP-1000 in 1975 while I was working for
Telefunken.

The devices did not look really new at that time.


I think we should be impressed by a standard which has remained in use
unchanged for over 30 years. A design engineer somewhere deserves some
kind of medal.




It likely helps that it's not a consumer standard.



It also helps that HP was willing to license the patents to anyone for

an extremely reasonable fee; last I heard (1980 something) the license
was about $200US. It made the technology extremely attractive to
instrument makers, computer vendors, software developers, etc. Add the
fact that there was no competing standard worthy of the name and the
deal was done!

 

[Joe Soap]

In response to what Richard B. Gilbert <rgilbert88@comcast.net> posted in
news:zKudnWTXcKYJgBLfRVn-2Q@comcast.com:

It also helps that HP was willing to license the patents to anyone for
an extremely reasonable fee; last I heard (1980 something) the license
was about $200US. It made the technology extremely attractive to
instrument makers, computer vendors, software developers, etc. Add the
fact that there was no competing standard worthy of the name and the
deal was done!

But there were doubts about the validity of the patent - relating to the
three-wire handshake - on the grounds that it was obvious and any competent
engineer would have done it that way.

Most manufacturers of IEEE488-compatible equipment simply ignored the
patent and went ahead anyway. I never heard of any being sued by HP.

--
Joe Soap.
JUNK is stuff that you keep for 20 years,
then throw away a week before you need it.

 

[Dave]

Casper H.S. Dik wrote:

I would like to see Sun lobby NI for support of X86 Solaris for at
least their PCI-GPIB boards and the GPIB-Enet (Ethernet to GPIB)
boxes. I've made telephone and written requests without even an
answer ...

What a good idea!

I don't even know what GPIB is but perhaps this is screaming
for some generic "Windows driver wrapper" for Solaris/x86.

Casper

Casper,

Many have stated what it is, and how long it has been around, so there
is no need for me to state that.

What has not been stated is that it is still in common use on modern
(i.e. sold today) test equipment. On expensive equipment it will be
standard, on cheaper stuff usually an option, and on the very cheapest
test kit you will not find it.

You will not find it on a sub $100 digital volt meter, but it will be
pretty standard on a $1000 bench DVM for lab use.

It is in fact similar in many ways to SCSI

1) It has been around for ages.
2) Still very common.
3) Parallel bus
4) Multiple devices on the same bus
5) Each device has a unique address.
6) Just add cables to add another instrument.
7) There are limits of distance and number of instruments.
8) You can get extenders.

And GPIB boards are sold this day new of course.

So Sun supporting it might not be a bad idea.

PS, I am still looking for the drivers for Solaris, for my home Sun on a
home project to look at the drift of an quartz oscillator relative to a
rubidium standard, using an HP time-interval counter, so if anyone is
able to help, get in touch at:

daved
DOT
kirkby
AT
onetel
DOT
net

 

[Mike Monett]

Richard B. Gilbert wrote:

[...]

It also helps that HP was willing to license the patents to anyone for
an extremely reasonable fee; last I heard (1980 something) the license
was about $200US. It made the technology extremely attractive to
instrument makers, computer vendors, software developers, etc. Add the
fact that there was no competing standard worthy of the name and the
deal was done!

The hpib became the IEEE488 in 1973. No license was needed to use it.

You are correct in saying it was the only interface available for test
instruments. If you wanted to control a process with instruments,
especially from different manufacturers, you used the hpib.

It was a simple interface and easy to understand. You could design your
own interface using a subset of the available commands. Ziatech made a
very inexpensive interface tester that could be used as a monitor or
controller to debug the interface.

Mike Monett

 

[Rich Grise]

On Sat, 21 May 2005 16:37:03 +0100, Dave wrote:

Casper H.S. Dik wrote:
I would like to see Sun lobby NI for support of X86 Solaris for at
least their PCI-GPIB boards and the GPIB-Enet (Ethernet to GPIB)
boxes. I've made telephone and written requests without even an
answer ...
I don't even know what GPIB is but perhaps this is screaming
for some generic "Windows driver wrapper" for Solaris/x86.

Many have stated what it is, and how long it has been around, so there
is no need for me to state that.

What has not been stated is that it is still in common use on modern
(i.e. sold today) test equipment. On expensive equipment it will be
standard, on cheaper stuff usually an option, and on the very cheapest
test kit you will not find it.

You will not find it on a sub $100 digital volt meter, but it will be
pretty standard on a $1000 bench DVM for lab use.

It is in fact similar in many ways to SCSI

1) It has been around for ages.
2) Still very common.
3) Parallel bus
4) Multiple devices on the same bus
5) Each device has a unique address.
6) Just add cables to add another instrument.
7) There are limits of distance and number of instruments.
8) You can get extenders.

And GPIB boards are sold this day new of course.

Somehow this jogged my memory, and I remember a Centronics connector -
like a parallel printer, but not as big. So, before making a public
fool of myself, I looked them up:
http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_GPIB_Mechanical.html
http://www.nullmodem.com/Centronics.htm

Oh, well, different number of pins. And HPIB, of course, can
piggyback for daisy-chains. (I saw a training video once at Control
Data, where the lecturer mentioned daisy-chaining, and noted "Nobody
really wants to talk about where that particular term came from...")

Cheers!
Rich

 

[DoN. Nichols]

In article <428F5623.A72@spam.com>, Mike Monett <no@spam.com> wrote:

Richard B. Gilbert wrote:

[...]

It also helps that HP was willing to license the patents to anyone for
an extremely reasonable fee; last I heard (1980 something) the license
was about $200US. It made the technology extremely attractive to
instrument makers, computer vendors, software developers, etc. Add the
fact that there was no competing standard worthy of the name and the
deal was done!

The hpib became the IEEE488 in 1973. No license was needed to use it.

You are correct in saying it was the only interface available for test
instruments. If you wanted to control a process with instruments,
especially from different manufacturers, you used the hpib.

It was a simple interface and easy to understand. You could design your
own interface using a subset of the available commands. Ziatech made a
very inexpensive interface tester that could be used as a monitor or
controller to debug the interface.

And Motorola made the 68488 chip, which allowed a simple
microprocessor to become IEEE488 capable.

I first used it for controlling a Fluke high voltage power
supply from a computer, putting it between the Fluke's own wide
interface and the computer which needed to control the power supply (a
HP 9825 IIRC).

Later, I designed a controller for Diablo daisywheel printers to
allow some friends to connect them to their Commodore PETs, using the
68488 and a 6802 as the "smarts".

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: <dnichols@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

 

[Rick Jones]

In comp.sys.sun.hardware Chris Newport <crn.news@nospam.netunix.com> wrote:

I think we should be impressed by a standard which has remained in use
unchanged for over 30 years. A design engineer somewhere deserves some
kind of medal.

Someone elsewhere provided this reference:

http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/hpj.html#Nelson:1972IS

which is a reference to a 1972 HP Journal Article by "G. E. Nelson and
D. W. Ricci"

rick jones
--
portable adj, code that compiles under more than one compiler
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

 

[Jorgen Moquist]

Chris Newport wrote:

I think we should be impressed by a standard which has remained in use
unchanged for over 30 years. A design engineer somewhere deserves some
kind of medal.

well, National Instruments updated their drivers around 98/99 to support

more "instruments/gpib-enet" devices, 128 i think it is.
/Jörgen