National Instruments AT-GPIB User manual

© Copyright 1992, 1994 National Instruments Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.
Getting Started with Your AT-GPIB
and the NI-488M™Software for
AT&T UNIX System V
August 1994 Edition
Part Number 320463-01

National Instruments Corporate Headquarters
6504 Bridge Point Parkway
Austin, TX 78730-5039
[phone]
Technical support fax: [phone]
[phone]
Branch Offices:
Australia [phone], Austria [phone], Belgium 02/757.00.20,
Canada (Ontario) [phone], Canada (Québec) [phone],
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Germany 089/741 31 30, Italy 02/48301892, Japan [phone],
Netherlands 03480-33466, Norway 32-848400, Spain (91) 640 0085,
Sweden 08-730 49 70, Switzerland 056/20 51 51, U.K. 0635 523545

Limited Warranty
The AT-GPIB is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship
for a period of two years from the date of shipment, as evidenced by
receipts or other documentation. National Instruments will, at its option,
repair or replace equipment that proves to be defective during the warranty
period. This warranty includes parts and labor.
The media on which you receive National Instruments software are
warranted not to fail to execute programming instructions, due to defects in
materials and workmanship, for a period of 90 days from date of shipment,
as evidenced by receipts or other documentation. National Instruments will,
at its option, repair or replace software media that do not execute
programming instructions if National Instruments receives notice of such
defects during the warranty period. National Instruments does not warrant
that the operation of the software shall be uninterrupted or error free.
A Return Material Authorization (RMA) number must be obtained from the
factory and clearly marked on the outside of the package before any
equipment will be accepted for warranty work. National Instruments will
pay the shipping costs of returning to the owner parts which are covered by
warranty.
National Instruments believes that the information in this manual is
accurate. The document has been carefully reviewed for technical accuracy.
In the event that technical or typographical errors exist, National
Instruments reserves the right to make changes to subsequent editions of
this document without prior notice to holders of this edition. The reader
should consult National Instruments if errors are suspected. In no event
shall National Instruments be liable for any damages arising out of or
related to this document or the information contained in it.
EXCEPT AS SPECIFIED HEREIN, NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS MAKES NO
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS
ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMER'S RIGHT TO RECOVER DAMAGES
CAUSED BY FAULT OR NEGLIGENCE ON THE PART OF NATIONAL
INSTRUMENTS SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT THERETOFORE
PAID BY THE CUSTOMER. NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS WILL NOT BE
LIABLE FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS,
USE OF PRODUCTS, OR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES,
EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY THEREOF. This limitation of the
liability of National Instruments will apply regardless of the form of action,

whether in contract or tort, including negligence. Any action against
National Instruments must be brought within one year after the cause of
action accrues. National Instruments shall not be liable for any delay in
performance due to causes beyond its reasonable control. The warranty
provided herein does not cover damages, defects, malfunctions, or service
failures caused by owner's failure to follow the National Instruments
installation, operation, or maintenance instructions; owner's modification of
the product; owner's abuse, misuse, or negligent acts; and power failure or
surges, fire, flood, accident, actions of third parties, or other events outside
reasonable control.
Copyright
Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or
transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in
whole or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments
Corporation.
Trademarks
NAT4882®, Turbo488® and NI-488M™ are trademarks of National
Instruments Corporation.
Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies.

Warning Regarding Medical and Clinical Use
of National Instruments Products
National Instruments products are not designed with components and testing
intended to ensure a level of reliability suitable for use in treatment and
diagnosis of humans. Applications of National Instruments products
involving medical or clinical treatment can create a potential for accidental
injury caused by product failure, or by errors on the part of the user or
application designer. Any use or application of National Instruments
products for or involving medical or clinical treatment must be performed by
properly trained and qualified medical personnel, and all traditional medical
safeguards, equipment, and procedures that are appropriate in the particular
situation to prevent serious injury or death should always continue to be
used when National Instruments products are being used. National
Instruments products are NOT intended to be a substitute for any form of
established process, procedure, or equipment used to monitor or safeguard
human health and safety in medical or clinical treatment.

FCC/DOC Radio Frequency
Interference Compliance
This equipment generates and uses radio frequency energy and, if not
installed and used in strict accordance with the instructions in this manual,
may cause interference to radio and television reception. This equipment
has been tested and found to comply with the following two regulatory
agencies:
Federal Communications Commission
This device complies with Part 15 of the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) Rules for a Class B digital device. A Class B device is
distinguishable from a Class A device by the appearance of an FCC ID
number located on the Class B device.
Canadian Department of Communications
This device complies with the limits for radio noise emissions from digital
apparatus set out in the Radio Interference Regulations of the Canadian
Department of Communications (DOC).
Le présent appareil numérique n’émet pas de bruits radioélectriques
dépassant les limites applicables aux appareils numériques de classe B
prescrites dans le règlement sur le brouillage radioélectrique édicté par le
ministère des communications du Canada.
Instructions to Users
These regulations are designed to provide reasonable protection against
interference from the equipment to radio and television reception in
residential areas.
There is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular
installation. However, the chances of interference are much less if the
equipment is installed and used according to this instruction manual.

If the equipment does cause interference to radio or television reception,
which can be determined by turning the equipment on and off, one or more
of the following suggestions may reduce or eliminate the problem.
• Operate the equipment and the receiver on different branches of your
AC electrical system.
• Move the equipment away from the receiver with which it is interfering.
• Reorient or relocate the receiver’s antenna.
• Be sure that the equipment is plugged into a grounded outlet and that
the grounding has not been defeated with a cheater plug.
Notice to user: Changes or modifications not expressly approved by
National Instruments could void the user’s authority to
operate the equipment under the FCC Rules.
If necessary, consult National Instruments or an experienced radio/television
technician for additional suggestions. The following booklet prepared by
the FCC may also be helpful: How to Identify and Resolve Radio-TV
Interference Problems. This booklet is available from the U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, Stock Number 004-000-00345-4.
Bescheinigung des Herstellers/Importeurs
Hiermit wird bescheinigt, daß die AT-GPIB in Übereinstimmung mit den
Bestimmungen der Vfg. 1046/1984 funk-entstört ist.
Der Detusche Bundespost wurde das Inverkehrbringen dieses Gerätes
angezeigt und die Berechtigung zur Überprüfung der Serie auf
Bestimmungen eingeräumt.

© National Instruments Corp. ix AT-GPIB/NI-488M/AT&T UNIX
Preface
This manual contains instructions for installing and configuring the
National Instruments AT-GPIB interface board and NI-488M multitasking
software driver for use with the AT&T UNIX System V Release 4.0 (or
higher). This hardware and software are intended for use on a PC AT
compatible computer with 386 or higher processor. This manual is meant to
be used with the NI-488M Software Reference Manual.
Organization of This Manual
This manual is organized as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction, lists the contents of your NI-488M kit and optional
equipment, and briefly describes the NI-488M software.
Chapter 2, Hardware Installation,contains step-by-step instructions for
installing the AT-GPIB interface board in a PC AT.
Chapter 3, Software Installation and Configuration, lists all the programs
and files located on the distribution disk and contains steps for installing
and configuring the NI-488M software and verifying the installation. This
chapter also contains other useful information including information for
getting started with a GPIB application program, the steps for removing the
NI-488M software, and the steps for changing the software configuration
after a successful installation.
Appendix A, New NI-488M Functions, describes three new NI-488M
functions included in the NI-488M software. These functions are not
described in the NI-488M Software Reference Manual.
Appendix B, Hardware Specifications, contains a description of the
physical and electrical characteristics of the AT-GPIB interface board and
the conditions under which it should be used.
Appendix C, Changing Hardware Configuration Settings, contains
instructions for changing the configuration settings of your AT-GPIB
interface board.

Preface
AT-GPIB/NI-488M/AT&T UNIX x © National Instruments Corp.
Appendix D, Customer Communication, contains forms you can use to
request help from National Instruments or to comment on our products and
manuals.
Conventions Used in This Manual
The following conventions are used throughout this manual.
italic Italic text denotes emphasis, a cross reference, or
an introduction to a key concept.
monospace Lowercase text in this font denotes text or
characters that are to be literally input from the
keyboard, sections of code, programming
examples, and syntax examples. This font is also
used for the proper names of disk drives, paths,
directories, programs, subprograms, subroutines,
device names, functions, variables, filenames,
and extensions, and for statements and comments
taken from program code.
<> Angle brackets enclose the name of a key on the
keyboard–for example, <PgDn>.
<Return> Key names are capitalized.

Preface
© National Instruments Corp. xi AT-GPIB/NI-488M/AT&T UNIX
Abbreviations
The following metric system prefixes are used with abbreviations for units of
measure in this manual:
Prefix Meaning Value
m-
k-
M-
milli-
kilo-
mega-
10-3
103
106
The following abbreviations for units of measure are used in this manual:
A amperes
C Celsius
°degrees
hex hexadecimal
Hz hertz
in. inches
M megabytes of memory
m meters
% percent
sec seconds
Acronyms
The following acronyms are used in this manual:
ANSI American National Standards Institute
DMA direct memory access
EMI electromagnetic interference
GPIB General Purpose Interface (IEEE-488) bus
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
I/O input/output
EOI end or identify
VDC volts direct current
Note: References in this manual to IEEE-488 are referring to the
ANSI/IEEE Standard 488.1-1987, which defines the GPIB.