USB/LPCI/LPCIe-3488A0 pages

USB/LPCI/LPCIe-3488A
High-Performance IEEE-488 GPIB Interface for USB/PCI/PCI Express
Introduction
The IEEE-488 standard, also known as GPIB, is a bus interface that connects instruments
with a computer to form an ATE system. Today, GPIB is still the most popular interface
between computer and instruments. ADLINK’s USB-3488A, LPCI-3488A and LPCIe-3488A
controller interface cards are fully compatible with the IEEE-488.2 instrumentation control and
communication standard and are capable of controlling up to 14 stand-alone instruments via
IEEE-488 cables (Figure 1)*. The USB-3488A, LPCI-3488A and LPCIe-3488A are designed to
meet the requirements of high performance and maximum programming portability.

USB-3488A

With APIs that are compatible with NI-488.2* driver software and VISA support, the
USB-3488A, LPCI-3488A and LPCIe-3488A offer the best compatibility with your existing
applications and instrument drivers. ADLINK has also implemented GPIB interface on our PXI/
Instrument
Instrument AA
Able to Talk,
Able to Talk,
PXIe controller product line. (Please refer to BB
page 1-5 ~ 1-10)
Listen and Control
Instrument
Listen and Control
Instrument
ex: Computer
ex: Computer

ADLINK’s LPCI-3488A with low-profile PCI form factor, supports both 3.3 V and 5 V PCI buses
and EOI be adapted to most industrial and desktop computers. A built-in FIFO between the
can
EOI
IFC
5system
IFC
5system
SRQ
Management
GPIB bus and PCI controller buffers GPIB read/write operations. The maximum GPIB transfer
SRQ
Management
ATN
lines
ATN
lines
REN
REN
rates of LPCI-3488A and USB-3488A up to 1.5 MB/s. (Figure 2)
DAV
DAV
NRFD
NRFD
NDAC

Features

■t
■t

USB-3488A
■t

USB 2.0 compatible
2 M USB cable attached for instrument connection
■t No external power required
■t Easy GPIB connectively for laptops
■t

■tSupported Operating System
t

• Windows XP Windows 7/8 x64/x86
,
• Visual Studio.NET/BCB

• LabVIEWTM*

• MATLAB®*

Star instrument connection
Star instrument connection

Figure 1.

ADLINK GPIB Data Xfer Rate (Small Block Data)
ADLINK GPIB Data Xfer Rate (Small Block Data)

ADLINK GPIB Data Xfer Rate (Large Block Data)
ADLINK GPIB Data Xfer Rate (Large Block Data)
1600
1600

1000
1000

Data Xfer Rate (KB/s)
Data Xfer Rate (KB/s)

Linear instrument connection
Linear instrument connection

Data Xfer Rate (KB/s)
Data Xfer Rate (KB/s)

■tDriver and SDK

Instrument D
Instrument D

Instrument C
Instrument C
Instrument A
Instrument A

■t

Instrument C
Instrument C

■t

Handshake and data signals on the GPIB bus
Handshake and data signals on the GPIB bus

Instrument B
Instrument B

■t

8 8 data lines
data lines

DI01-8
DI01-8

Fully compatible with the IEEE-488 standard
Support 32-bit 3.3 V or 5 V PCI bus (LPCI-3488A)
Up to 1.5 MB/s data transfer rates
(USB-3488A and LPCI-3488A)
Built-in FIFO for read/write operations
Provide APIs compatible with NI-488.2 driver software*
Support industrial-standard VISA library
Interactive utility for testing and diagnostics

Instrument A
Instrument A

■t

3 3 handshake
handshake
lines
lines

NDAC
*Devices can be connected in linear or star configuration, or a combination of the two topologies.

Instrument B
Instrument B

LPCI-3488A

■t

Instrument
Instrument CC
Able Listen
Able toto Listen
ex: Function
ex: Function
Generator
Generator

Able to Talk
Able to Talk
and to Listen
and to Listen
ex: Oscilloscoae
ex: Oscilloscoae

800
800
600
600
400
400
200
200
00

200
200

400
600
800
400
600
800
Block Size (Bytes)
Block Size (Bytes)

1000
1000

1400
1400
1200
1200
1000
1000
800
800
600
600
400
400
200
200
00

15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150
15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150

Block Size (KBytes)
Block Size (KBytes)

Figure 2.

4-1

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Updated September 23, 2014. ©2014 ADLINK Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All specifications are subject to change without further notice.