Agilent Technologies 86100A, Programmer'S Manual, Page: 6 / 366

1-2
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
This chapter explains how to program the instrument. The programming syntax conforms to
the IEEE 488.2 Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation and to the
Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI). This edition of the manual doc-
uments all 86100-series software revisions up through A.07.00. For a listing of commands
that are new or revised,
refer to “New and Revised Commands” on page 1-42 .
If you are unfamiliar with programming instruments using the SCPI standard, refer to “Com-
mand Syntax” on page 1-23 . For more detailed information regarding the GPIB, the IEEE
488.2 standard, or the SCPI standard, refer to the following books:
• International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE Standard 488.1-1987,
IEEE Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation. New York, NY, 1987.
• International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE Standard 488.2-1987,
IEEE Standard Codes, Formats, Protocols and Common commands For Use with ANSI/
IEEE Std 488.1-1987.
New York, NY, 1987.
Throughout this book, BASIC and ANSI C are used in the examples of individual commands.
If you are using other languages, you will need to find the equivalents of BASIC commands
like OUTPUT, ENTER, and CLEAR, to convert the examples.
The instrument’s GPIB address is configured at the factory to a value of 7. You must set the
output and input functions of your programming language to send the commands to this
address. You can change the GPIB address from the instrument’s front panel.
Data Flow
The data flow gives you an idea of where the measurements are made on the acquired data
and when the post-signal processing is applied to the data. The following figure is a block dia-
gram of the instrument. The diagram is laid out serially for a visual perception of how the
data is affected by the instrument.