Parallel Communication Protocols

Parallel communication protocols for data include the IEEE-488 protocol, and the Centronics protocol has been widely used for printers.

Note: This is just a place-holder location for future development. Very little has been done with it to date.

IEEE-488 Parallel

Hewlett-Packard developed a communication bus which has become the industry standard for laboratory use. It is also known as the GPIB (General Purpose Instrumentation Bus) or the HPIB (Hewlett-Packard Instrumentation Bus). It is a 24 line bus with the following allocation of lines: 16 bi-directional lines (8 data lines and 8 control lines) and 8 additional lines for logical ground returns and shielding. It can connect up to 14 instruments with a computer and operate at a data rate as high as 1 MB per second.

Most manufacturers of research equipment which communicates with a computer offer IEEE-488 devices. Such devices can be classified as 1) listen only, 2) talk only, 3) talk-listen and 4) talk-listen-control.

Centronics Parallel Protocol