National Instruments has introduced its first Mac-compatible USB-GPIB controller as well as a low-profile PCI Express GPIB controller.

With the NI USB-GPIB-HS, Mac users can now control their stand-alone instruments from Mac laptops and desktops with the flexibility of a portable USB-GPIB interface. Additionally, the NI PCIe-GPIB/Low-Profile (LP) controller gives engineers and scientists a high-performance, RoHS-compliant controller that uses about 75% less power and is manufactured using 63% less printed circuit board (PCB) material than previous models.

National Instruments began developing GPIB products in 1976 so engineers and scientists could control their instruments from desktop PCs regardless of vendor. Now, with the USB-GPIB-HS, NI is helping Mac users take advantage of their USB ports to control thousands of stand-alone GPIB instruments. The controller supports both PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh laptops and desktops and is compatible with the Mac OS X operating system.

Additionally, NI introduced the new, smaller NI PCIe-GPIB/LP controller for Windows Vista/XP/2000, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris operating systems. The adoption of today’s smaller PCs and gravitation toward PCI Express slots necessitate the invention of smaller controllers.

The RoHS-compliant NI PCIe-GPIB/LP offers the same high-performance specifications as its PCI Express predecessor but in a smaller form factor. Using 75% less operating power and manufactured with 63% less PCB material, the NI PCIe-GPIB/LP maintains advanced transfer rates of >1.5 MB/s (IEEE 488.1) and >7.9 MB/s (HS488) for maximum performance.

Both the NI USB-GPIB-HS and the NI PCIe-GPIB/LP controllers can be programmed with the easy-to-use LabVIEW graphical system design platform, the NI LabWindows/CVI ANSI C integrated development environment and NI Measurement Studio software for Microsoft Visual Studio.

More information: www.ni.com/gpib.