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Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux

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On 2025-12-16, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:49:37 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>
>> I wonder if this is a record for the age of a standard for which new
>> drivers have been developed
>> <https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/cables-connectors/53-years-
> later-bus-standard-launched-by-hp-in-1972-gets-stable-linux-driver-
> general-purpose-interface-bus-has-blistering-8-mb-s-of-bandwidth>:
>> after 53 years, the mainline Linux kernel now has drivers for the
>> IEEE-488 interface, called “HPIB” by its creator HP, and “GPIB” by
>> everyone else.
>> 
>> Some PCs (e.g. Commodore, Acorn) used it as an expansion bus, but mainly
>> I think it was for connecting lab equipment.
>> 
>> Anybody here had any experience with it?
>
> I had one client who used Commodore PETs because it used the GPIB for its 
> peripherals. iirc a PET was about $800 and a rudimentary HP computer was 
> close to $3000. When you just want to read the test instrumentation cheap 
> is good.
>
> My Osborne 1 had a parallel port, primarily meant for a Centronics type 
> printer cable but it did have the drivers for IEEE-488.
>
> For its day it wasn't bad You could easily daisychain peripherals. A 
> problem was IEEE-488.1 was strictly a physical standard. IEEE-488.2 
> expanded on .1 and has some loose definitions of protocols but it was 
> still the wild west. It was sort of like SPI. 

In my company, we use it in a test bench for our radio devices.
When the devices are built, the manufacturing line solders in an EEPROM
preloaded with (among others) a test program. On initial power-up it
boots into the test program, which fires up TCP/IP connections to
- the Windows PC on the test bench
- a "golden" unit permanetly installed on the test bed
- an ethernet/GPIB converter
(all with fixed IP addresses on the 192.168.12.* subnet)
Behind the GPIB converter is an RF power meter

We have one instance of this in our repair shop, and one at our
manufacturing contractor.

Modern RF lab equipment is mostly interfaced with USB, but the old HP
lab equipemnt (from before in was rebadged as Agilent and the again as
Keysight) is much less expensive (on eBay). And being a small company
("4 guys in a garage") we have to be cheap!

Our manufacturing partner was amazed that we drive the test from INSIDE
the DUT. The PC on the bench really only runs
- a terminal window to the RS232 port on the radio
- a logging program to capture the test data and link it to the serial
  number.
- a command window the grab the log files and transmit them to our QA
  archive.
-- 
Lars Poulsen - an old geek in Santa Barbara, California

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IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-12-15 23:49 +0000
  Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-12-16 08:27 +0000
    Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> - 2025-12-16 13:49 +0000
      Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-12-16 21:30 +0000
        Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> - 2025-12-16 22:06 +0000
    Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux Beej Jorgensen <beej@beej.us> - 2025-12-17 02:07 +0000
      Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-12-17 07:49 +0000
  Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2025-12-16 12:33 -0500
    Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2025-12-16 18:11 +0000
      Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2025-12-17 07:26 -0500
  Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux never-you-mind@home.org - 2025-12-16 18:24 -0500
  Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2025-12-18 16:44 +0000
    Re: IEEE-488 Drivers For Linux rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-12-18 18:17 +0000

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