GPIB PC Compatability Question and Recommendations

[mikem1234]

Good Evening,

I have a client that needs PC upgrades for Eight (8) of their bench computers. These computers are pretty old and run on windows xp. A lot of the engineering equipment they use is pretty dated and almost everything is GPIB connected.

1. Each old PC has one older single-port NI GPIB PCI card.
2. The new PCs they ordered are running Windows 10 and they don't have a PCI slot on the motherboard, to directly use their old cards, just the newest PCI-E slot.

What do you think the best options are for upgrading 8 of these computers to be have connectivity with all 8 of these pieces of equipment via GPIB?

I'd like to consider costs as ordering 8 of the newest cards for this client might be a hard sale.

Here's what I've considered:

• USB-to-GPIB Adapter
• PCI-PCIe Riser Card/Adapter
• The NI Ethernet controller
  • i'm not sure exactly how expensive it will be as all 8 of the GPIB devices will need to be plugged into something else, assuming the controller itself can't handle 8 GPIB ports.
  • If there is another hard device to connect all of the GPIB connectors, what will the total cost look like compared to 8 standalone cards?

My concerns:

• Cost 
• Reliability (DoD Contract)
• Compatability

[crossrulz]

There is also the PCIe version of the GPIB controllers.  You can get a full list of options here: https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/hardware/products/gpib-instrument-control-device.html?modelId=202637 

[mikem1234]

The PCIe version of the cards is the issue, they don't want to pay for 8 new cards just because were upgrading the PCs. However, they are open to improvement.

[paw510]

---

1. Each old PC has one older single-port NI GPIB PCI card.

---

What do you mean by "single-port" ? Any single gpib card can be connected to many gpib instruments : gpib is a bus.

There is one controller for each  gpib bus. It is not clear from your post : you want to have 8 independent systems or you can allow for a single controller for all of them. The best configuration and cost will depend on this.