Agilent Technologies E5810A - Manual (Page 24)

24 Chapter 1
E5810A Description
E5810A Software/Firmware
Typical Network Operation
The E5810 provides a network gateway between network-equipped
computer systems and GPIB and/or RS-232 based instruments. The
gateway enables users to obtain measurement data either locally or
remotely from GPIB and/or RS-232 instruments. See “Typical Network
Connections” in this chapter for typical connections to Enterprise or Local
Networks or to a PC.
The E5810 connects a local area network (LAN) from the computer system
to the GPIB and/or RS-232 buses. Network-equipped computer systems
that are supported for use with the E5810 include PCs with Windows XP/
Vista/7/8/Server 2008 R2. Using the client/server model of computing, the
computer system is the
client , and the E5810 is the server .
Thus, applications running on the computer system can transparently
interface to GPIB and RS-232 based instruments over the LAN. Since
several computer systems can access the E5810, groups of users can share
access to the same GPIB and/or RS-232 instruments via the E5810. In
addition, existing I/O applications that are supported with the E5810 and are
designed for GPIB or RS-232 can use the E5810 without modification other
than an address change.
The E5810 and its attached instruments can be placed anywhere on the
network (rather than with a particular controller or server computer system).
This includes networks which span different geographic locations, such as
when networked computer systems are located at several different sites.
Thus, GPIB and RS-232 instruments can be located where they are most
convenient. In addition, you can have more than one E5810 on a network,
providing “clusters” of GPIB and/or RS-232 instrumentation at different
locations.
Client System
GPIB
GPIB Instruments Server
E5810
LAN
RS-232
RS-232 Instrument