Measurement Computing Personal488 rev.3.0 For DOS & Windows 3.Xi - Manual (Page 20)

1. Overview I. HARDWARE GUIDES
I-4 Personal488 User’s Manual, Rev. 3.0
IEEE 488.2 Interface Boards
The family of PC/IEEE 488 controllers includes the GP488B, the GP488/2, the AT488, the MP488,
the MP488CT, the GP488/MM and the NB488. All are IEEE 488.2 compatible and supported by
Driver488 software. The MP488 and MP488CT also provide digital I/O, and the MP488CT provides a
set of programmable counter/timers, all of which are fully supported by Driver488. Some features of
the interfaces are listed below:
•
GP488B interface board (for PC/XT/AT): Features five jumper-selectable interrupt lines. Three
8-bit jumper-selectable DMA channels are also available. The 8-bit DMA mode provides full
compatibility with programs written for GP488 series boards.
•
AT488 interface board (for PC/XT/AT and PS/2 with the ISA bus): Features eleven jumper-
selectable interrupt lines. Three 16-bit and four 8-bit jumper-selectable DMA channels are also
available. The 8-bit DMA mode provides full compatibility with programs written for the GP488
series boards.
•
MP488 interface board (for PC/XT/AT and PS/2 with the ISA bus): Features eleven jumper-
selectable interrupt lines. Three 16-bit and four 8-bit jumper-selectable DMA channels are also
available. The 8-bit DMA mode provides full compatibility with programs written for the GP488
series boards. The digital I/O section of this board provides 40 digital I/O lines which can be
programmed for a mix of input and output.
•
MP488CT interface board (for PC/XT/AT and PS/2 with the ISA bus): Features eleven jumper-
selectable interrupt lines. Three 16-bit and four 8-bit jumper-selectable DMA channels are also
available. The 8-bit DMA mode provides full compatibility with programs written for the GP488
series boards. The digital I/O section of this board provides 40 input or output lines which can be
programmed for a mix of input and output. The counter/timer section features a programmable
clock generator plus 5 fully independent versatile counter/timer channels.
•
GP488/2 interface board (for Personal Systems/2 with MicroChannel architecture): Features seven
software selectable interrupt lines and fourteen 8-bit software selectable DMA arbitration levels.
•
GP488B/MM interface board: Converts your Ampro PC/104 Single Board PC into an IEEE 488.2
compliant controller or peripheral.
•
NB488 external interface module (for notebook, laptop and desktop PCs): Connects to a PC’s
parallel port eliminating the need for an internal expansion slot.
Driver488 Software Interface
Driver488 is the software interface between DOS or Windows and the IEEE 488 controller board.
Driver488 software includes the driver itself, an installation program, other utility programs, and
programming examples. Driver488 provides a full implementation of the IEEE 488.2 standard, plus
advanced capabilities such as high-speed DMA data transfers, interrupt vectoring on specified events,
automatic error detection, callable subroutines, and serial (COM) port support.
Driver488 monitors all IEEE 488 bus monitoring and control lines and generates an interrupt based on
SRQ status and various other bus conditions. Driver488 software supports automatic program vectoring
to service routines for C, Pascal, and BASIC. On a specified event ( Error, SRQ, Peripheral,
Controller, Trigger, Clear, Talk, Listen, Idle, ByteIn, ByteOut, Change ),
Driver488 can either call a specified application routine or simulate a light pen interrupt to signal that
the event has occurred.
Versions with HP-style character commands can be accessed by virtually any language that can
communicate with DOS files, and additionally provide standard DOS device driver interfaces which
permit communications with the IEEE 488 bus and/or connected devices in the same manner as LPT1,
COM1, etc. Versions with the Subroutine API offer higher performance and can be used with most
popular C, Pascal, and Basic languages. The Driver488 commands and bus protocol are very similar to
those used by the Hewlett-Packard HP-85 controller.