A modular data acquisition system based on a general purpose interface bus

A general purpose, low cost and flexible system for multichannel data acquisition is described. The system uses the general purpose interface bus (GPIB) as a back plane in an instrument crate into which specially developed GPIB instruments can be inserted as modules. The crate concept represents an extension to the GPIB standard, and it reduces drastically the cost of programmable instrument systems, while still maintaining the generality of the GPIB. Descriptions of three programmable GPIB modules designed for the system illustrate its possibilities.