In article <[log in to unmask]>,
Steve Dirickson wrote:
 
>[deleted]
>
>Have I missed something? The fact that the CIO+HPIB+peripheral
>combination and the CIO+HPFL+peripheral combination are supported on the
>9x7 boxes would indicate that all of this hardware/environment testing
>has been done from the NIO connector out. Likewise, the fact that the
>CIO+HPFL+peripheral combination is supported on the 9x9KS boxes would
>indicate that the entire system has been certified. I just don't see that
>there's that much left to test, and what little there is seems to be
>limited mostly to the low-level software interface between the 9x9KS box
>and the HPIB card on the CIO adapter.
 
Right on the money, Steve!  Once a subsystem has been tested with the
thoroughness of HP-IB over the years, you can be *very sure* that
incompatibilities with newer bus designs will be confined to the
interface, and not further down the chain.  HP-IB has control lines
dedicated to flow control and timing issues, and doesn't rely on
timing loops (which would be a bogus design, BTW).
 
I agree that this whole "problem" appears to be a case of forced
obsolescence dictated by HP marketdroids.
 
--Jim