National Instruments NI-488.2 Benutzerhandbuch

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Chapter 8
NI-488.2 Programming Techniques
© National Instruments Corporation
8-3
If you are using device-level calls, the NI-488.2 software automatically 
sends the HS488 configuration message to devices. If you enabled the 
HS488 protocol in the GPIB Configuration utility, the NI-488.2 software 
sends out the HS488 configuration message when you use 
ibdev
 to bring 
a device online. If you call 
ibconfig
 to change the GPIB cable length, the 
NI-488.2 software sends out the HS488 message again, the next time you 
call a device-level function.
If you are using board-level traditional NI-488.2 calls or multi-device 
NI-488.2 calls and you want to configure devices for high-speed, you 
must send the HS488 configuration messages using 
ibcmd
 or 
SendCmds
The HS488 configuration message is made up of two GPIB command 
bytes. The first byte, the Configure Enable (CFE) message (hex 1F), 
places all HS488 devices into their configuration mode. Non-HS488 
devices should ignore this message. The second byte is a GPIB secondary 
command that indicates the number of meters of cable in your system. 
It is called the Configure (CFGn) message. Because HS488 can operate 
only with cable lengths of 1 to 15 m, only CFGn values of 1 through 15 
(hex 61 through 6F) are valid. If the cable length was configured properly 
in the GPIB Configuration utility, you can determine how many meters of 
cable are in your system by calling 
ibask
 (option 
IbaHSCableLength
in your application. For more information about CFE and CFGn messages, 
refer to the Multiline Interface Messages topic in the NI-488.2 online help. 
For instructions on accessing the online help, refer to the 
 section in 
System Configuration Effects on HS488
Maximum HS488 data transfer rates can be limited by your host computer 
and GPIB system setup. For example, when using a PC-compatible 
computer with PCI bus, the maximum obtainable transfer rate is 
8 Mbytes/s, but when using another bus, such as USB or Ethernet, 
the maximum data transfer rate depends on the maximum transfer rate 
of that bus. 
The same IEEE 488 cabling constraints for a 350 ns T1 delay apply to 
HS488. As you increase the amount of cable in your GPIB configuration, 
the maximum data transfer rate using HS488 decreases. For example, 
two HS488 devices connected by two meters of cable can transfer data 
faster than four HS488 devices connected by 4 m of cable.