8 8163A/B, 8164A/B & 8166A/B Mainframes Programming Guide1 Introduction to ProgrammingGPIB InterfaceThe interface used by your instrument is the GPIB (General PurposeInterface Bus).GPIB is the interface used for communication between a controller and anexternal device, such as the tunable laser source. The GPIB conforms toIEEE standard 488-1978, ANSI standard MC 1.1 and IEC recommendation625-1.If you are not familiar with the GPIB, then refer to the following books:• The International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEEStandard 488.1-1987, IEEE Standard Digital Interface forProgrammable Instrumentation.• The International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEEStandard 488.2-1992, IEEE Standard Codes, Formats, Protocols andCommon Commands For Use with ANSI/IEEE Std 488.1-1987.To obtain a copy of either of these last two documents, look at:http://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/instrumentation_and_measurement.htmlIn addition, the commands not from the IEEE-488.2 standard, are definedaccording to the Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments(SCPI).For information about SCPI, and SCPI programming techniques, pleaserefer to:• Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments.Web: http://www.ivifoundation.org/docs/scpi-99.pdfSee also: http://www.ivifoundation.org/scpi/The interface of the 8163A/B Lightwave Multimeter, 8164A/B LightwaveMeasurement System, and 8166A/B Lightwave Multichannel System tothe GPIB is defined by the IEEE Standards 488.1 and 488.2.Table 1 on page -9 shows the interface functional subset that theinstruments implement.
