Home of RF and Wireless Vendors and Resources

One Stop For Your RF and Wireless Need

GPIB vs Serial-Basic difference between GPIB and Serial interfaces

This page on GPIB vs serial mentions basic difference between GPIB and serial interfaces(RS232,RS485).The difference between various terms and other instrument interfaces are also mentioned.

GPIB interface

The full form of GPIB is General Purpose Interface Bus. It is also referred as IEEE-488. GPIB offers fast data transfer rates with suitable application software. One GPIB can be used by 14 devices.

The drawbacks of GPIB are:
• About 2 meter distance can be covered between computer and microlink.
• Adaptor is required in the computer for interfacing.


Serial interfaces(RS232,RS485)

The popular serial interfaces are RS232 and RS485. RS232 is used for one to one connection and RS485 is used for one to many connections. RS485 is also referred as multi-drop connection.

Earlier days computers were manufactured with RS232 serial port(9 pin). Now-a-days one do not find any RS232 serial port and hence USB to RS232 adaptor is required. For RS485 also one need suitable adaptor. Refer difference between RS232 and RS485 which mentions technical specifications of these serial interfaces.

Specifications GPIB interface Serial interface
Maximum Distance 2 meter 50 meter(RS232),
1000 meter(RS485)
Maximum speed samples/second 1 MHz 700 (RS232/RS485)
Number of devices 14 per cable 1 per cable (RS232),
31 per cable (RS485)
Computer Adaptor Card Needed Not needed for RS232,
Needed for RS485
Microlink Hardware 3000 series 3000 series, 826 units (RS232/RS485)


What are difference Interface types?

DigRF interface   RS232 interface   RS485 interface   RS422 interface   RS232 vs RS485 vs RS422   CAN interface   SPI interface   interface types and converters  



What is Difference between

difference between FDM and OFDM
Difference between SC-FDMA and OFDM
Difference between SISO and MIMO
Difference between TDD and FDD
Difference between 802.11 standards viz.11-a,11-b,11-g and 11-n
OFDM vs OFDMA
CDMA vs GSM
Bluetooth vs zigbee

RF and Wireless Terminologies