Agilent Technologies Agilent E5810A, User Manual

Page: 26 / 177

26 Chapter 1
E5810 Description
E5810 Software/Firmware
Typical Network Operation
The E5810 provides a network gateway between network-equipped
computer systems and GPIB and/or RS-232 based instruments. The
Gateway enables users to obtain measurement data either locally or
remotely from GPIB and/or RS-232 instruments. See “Typical Network
Connections” in this chapter for typical connections to Enterprise or Local
Networks or to a PC.
The E5810 connects a local area network (LAN) from the computer system
to the GPIB and/or RS-232 buses. Network-equipped computer systems
that are supported for use with the E5810 include PCs with Windows
98/2000/NT/Me/XP Professional. Using the client/server model of
computing, the computer system is the
client
, and the E5810 is the
server
.
Thus, applications running on the computer system can transparently
interface to GPIB and RS-232- based instruments over the LAN. Since
several computer systems can access the E5810, groups of users can share
access to the same GPIB and/or RS-232 instruments via the E5810.
In addition, existing I/O applications that are supported with the E5810 and
are designed for GPIB or RS-232 can use the E5810 without modification
other than an address change.
The E5810 and its attached instruments can be placed anywhere on the
network (rather than with a particular controller or server computer system).
This includes networks which span different geographic locations, such as
when networked computer systems are located at several different sites.
Thus, GPIB and RS-232 instruments can be located where they are most
convenient. In addition, you can have more than one E5810 on a network,
providing “clusters” of GPIB and/or RS-232 instrumentation at different
locations.
Client System
GPIB
GPIB Instruments
Server
E5810
LAN
RS-232
RS-232 Instrument