Chapter 4 GPIB/GPIB-488.2 Library
© National Instruments Corporation 4-5 LabWindows/CVI Standard Libraries
• The Bus Control function panels provide low-level control of the GPIB bus.
• The Board Control function panels provide low-level control of the GPIB board. These
functions are normally used when the GPIB board is not controller-in-charge.
• The Callbacks function panels install callback functions that are invoked when certain GPIB
events occur. The functions in this class are available only under Windows. Under UNIX,
you can use the ibsgnl function.
• The Thread-Specific Status function panels return the value of the thread-specific GPIB
status variables for the current thread. The functions in this class are needed only for
multithreaded applications and are available only on Windows 95 and NT.
• The GPIB 488.2 Functions function panels directly adhere to the IEEE-488.2 standard for
communicating with and controlling GPIB devices.
− The Device I/O function panels read data from, and write data to, devices on the GPIB.
− The Trigger and Clear function panels trigger and clear GPIB devices.
− The SRQ and Serial Polls function panels handle service requests and perform
serial polls.
− The Parallel Polls function panels conduct parallel polls and configure devices to
respond to them.
− The Remote/Local function panels enable and disable operation of devices remotely via
the GPIB or locally via the front panel of the device.
− The System Control function panels perform system-wide functions, obtain system-wide
status information, and pass system control to other devices.
− The Low-Level I/O function panels perform I/O functions at a lower-level than the
function panels in the other classes.
GPIB Library Concepts
This section contains general information about the GPIB Library, the GPIB device driver,
guidelines and restrictions you should know when using the GPIB Library, and descriptions of
the types of GPIB functions that the GPIB Library contains.

GPIB Libraries and the GPIB Dynamic Link Library/Device Driver

LabWindows/CVI for Windows uses National Instruments standard Windows GPIB.DLL.
LabWindows/CVI for Sun uses the standard Sun Solaris-installed GPIB device drivers. These