17 Oct
2006
17 Oct
'06
4:32 p.m.
On 10/17/2006 at 11:46 PM ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
> >(the 8291 was the talker/listener chip, the
8292, actually a
> programmed microcontroler (8042?) was the GPIB contorlelr add-on).
In one of their rare bits of candor, Intel admits right in the databook
that the 8292 is a preprogrammed 8041A.
I've got a x80 board here that uses the 92/93 to talk to a hard disk drive.
I think I also have the schematics for same and I definitely have the
driver source. There were a couple of "quirks", but nothing too awful.
If you're not dealing with very high-speed devices, (e.g. voltmeters, etc.)
and only talking to a single device, a simple bidirectional printer port
can provide most of the functionality of GPIB/HPIB. Sometime in the
mid-80's, I released a bit of code (may still be in SIMTEL) for a DOS TSR
to drive an HP Plotter through the printer port.
It wasn't an original idea--I saw the printer port on the Victor 9000 used
to do the same thing. Victor would even sell you a cable for that purpose.
Cheers,
Chuck