National Instruments GPIB-1014 Series User manual

© Copyright 1992 National Instruments Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.
Getting Started with Your GPIB-1014
Series Board and the NI-488M™
Software for Motorola UNIX
May 1992 Edition
Part Number 320509-01

National Instruments Corporate Headquarters
6504 Bridge Point Parkway
Austin, TX 78730-5039
[phone]
(800) IEEE-488 (toll-free U.S. and Canada)
Technical support fax: [phone]
Branch Offices:
Australia 03 879 9422, Belgium 02 757 00 20, Canada 519 622 9310,
Denmark 45 76 73 22, France 1 48 65 33 70, Germany 089 714 50 93,
Italy 02 48301892, Japan 03 3788 1921, Netherlands 01720 45761,
Norway 03 846866, Spain 91 896 0675, Sweden 08 984970,
Switzerland 056 45 58 80, U.K. 0635 523545

Limited Warranty
The National Instruments GPIB boards are 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
NI-488M™is a trademark of National Instruments Corporation.
Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies.

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 regulatory agencies:
• The limits for a Class A computing device, in accordance with the
specifications in Part 15 of U.S. Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
– This device may not cause harmful interference.
– This device must accept any interference received, including
interference that may cause undesired operation.
• The limits for radio noise emissions from digital apparatus set out in
the Radio Interference Regulations of the Canadian Department of
Communications (DOC).
These regulations are designed to provide reasonable protection against
interference from the equipment to radio and television reception in
commercial 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 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.
• Relocate the equipment with respect to the receiver.
• Reorient 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.

© National Instruments Corp. vii 1014/NI-488M/Motorola UNIX
Preface
This manual contains instructions for installing and configuring the
National Instruments GPIB-1014 series interface boards and the NI-488M
multitasking software for use with the Motorola UNIX Operating System.
This manual is meant to be used with the National Instruments IEEE 488
Multitasking UNIX Device Driver reference (NI-488M Software Reference
Manual, part number 320062-01).
The material in this manual is for users who have extensive knowledge of
the Motorola UNIX operating system and have super-user privilege. This
manual also assumes that the user has already received a GPIB-1014 series
interface board along with a user manual.
Organization of This Manual
This manual is organized as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction, briefly describes the GPIB-1014 series interface
boards and the NI-488M software, and lists the contents of your NI-488M
kit and optional equipment.
Chapter 2, Installation and Configuration,lists all the files located on the
distribution medium, and contains step-by-step instructions for configuring
and installing the NI-488M software and GPIB-1014 series interface boards,
and verifying the software installation.
Appendix A, Troubleshooting, suggests areas to check if you still have
problems installing the GPIB-1014 series boards and/or the NI-488M
software after following the procedures described in Chapter 2, Installation
and Configuration.
Appendix B, Customer Communication, contains forms for you to complete
to facilitate communication with National Instruments concerning our
products.

Preface
1014/NI-488M/Motorola UNIX viii © National Instruments Corp.
Conventions Used in This Manual
The following conventions are used throughout this manual.
enter Reserved to mean that the commands
immediately succeeding the word must be typed
into the computer, and then executed by pressing
the <Return> key on the keyboard.
GPIB-1014 Refers to any National Instruments VME-to-
IEEE 488 interface board including the
GPIB-1014, GPIB-1014D, GPIB-1014DP, and
GPIB-1014P.
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.
Motorola UNIX Refers to the SYS/V68 release 3 version 5.1
Operating System.
Abbreviations
The following abbreviations for units of measure are used in this manual:
A amperes
Hz hertz
in. inches
kbytes 1,024 bytes
M megabytes of memory
M- mega- (106)
m meters

Preface
© National Instruments Corp. ix 1014/NI-488M/Motorola UNIX
Acronyms
The following acronyms are used in this manual:
ANSI American National Standards Institute
DMA direct memory access
GPIB General Purpose Interface (IEEE 488) bus
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
I/O input/output
PIO programmed input/output
RAM random-access memory
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.
Related Documentation
This manual is to be used with the following documentation:
•GPIB-1014 User Manual, National Instruments Corporation
(Part Number 320030-01)
•GPIB-1014D User Manual, National Instruments Corporation
(Part Number 320140-01)
•GPIB-1014DP User Manual, National Instruments Corporation
(Part Number 320049-01)
•GPIB-1014P User Manual, National Instruments Corporation
(Part Number 320026-01)
• ANSI/IEEE Standard 488.1-1987, IEEE Standard Digital Interface for
Programmable Instrumentation
•SYSTEM V/68 Release 3 System Administrator's Reference Manual
(For more information on Motorola UNIX documentation, contact the
Literature Distribution Center, 616 West 24th Street, Tempe Arizona
85282.)

Preface
1014/NI-488M/Motorola UNIX x © National Instruments Corp.
Customer Communication
National Instruments wants to receive your comments on our products and
manuals. We are interested in the applications you develop with our
products, and we want to help if you have problems with them. To make it
easy for you to contact us, this manual contains comment and configuration
forms for you to complete. These forms are in Appendix B, Customer
Communication, at the end of this manual.