is CAN a asynchronous communication

[madavan]

Hi,
We are going to startup a project..for that we need to know more about CAN..can i know bsacially what is the diff between RS 485 & CAN communication..
Is CAN a synchronous or asynchonous communication....
Can u please reply me about this as early as possible...
Thanks,
padma

[pavanb]

Yes, CAN is asynchronous, but one could also argue that you have to *wait* (notification) before you read making it fall into the synchronous realm.
http://www.algonet.se/~staffann/developer/CAN.htm and NI-CAN user manual is a good starting point.