GPIB

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IEEE 488, also known as HP-IB (Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus) and generically as GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus), is a short-range digital communications 8-bit parallel multi-master interface bus specification developed by Hewlett-Packard. It subsequently became the subject of several standards.

Although the bus was created in the late 1960s to connect together automated test equipment, it also had some success during the 1970s and 1980s as a peripheral bus for early microcomputers, notably the Commodore PET. Newer standards have largely replaced IEEE 488 for computer use, but it is still used by test equipment.