Can a 1984 version of GPIB-PC2 card be used with NI-488.2 Version 1.60 software?

[Fred Grabiner]

I have found an old 8-bit ISA GPIB card and manual with DOS software. It is called GPIB-PC2 in the manual and GPIB-PC Revision G on the card. Is this functionally equivalent to the GPIB-PCII card, and will it work with the 1.60 software?

[Kim L]

Hello Fred,

It sounds like the board is a 488.1. The following steps will help you verify this.

1) Look for the identification sticker on the back plane of the board. 488.2 board will have the word 488.2 on the label.
2) Check to see what GPIB controller chip the board has. All of our 488.1 boards have the NEC7210; our 488.2 boards have the NAT4882 or the TNT4882.
3) Check the assembly number of the board. If the number starts with 180 (i.e. 180625-01) then it is a 488.1 board. 488.2 boards start with the number 181 or 182 (i.e. 181060-01)

The NI-488.2 software (version 1.6) is not compatible with the obsolete 488.1 boards, because the NI-488.2 software looks for extra registers found only on the 488.2 boards, which have the NAT4882 or the TNT4882 GPIB
controller chips. The 488.1 boards use chips with a 7210 register set. You can, however, use the 488.1 board in DOS. To determine which driver you would need, go to:

http://www.ni.com/support/gpib/versions.htm

Have a great day.

Kim L.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[TobinFricke]

I have exactly the same card and I'm trying to get it to work in DOS. I'd be interested to hear whether you met with success.

thanks,
Tobin Fricke