The standards described above all are used in serial communications schemes designed for longer distances. Up to 15 devices can be interconnected, usually personal computers and scientific equipment or instruments. It provides a high data signaling rate, up to 1 Mbps, but it is limited in length. The total bus length permitted is 20 meters, with no more than 4 meters between devices. The lines are grouped into data lines, handshake lines, bus management lines, and ground lines.
Communication is digital, and messages are sent one byte at a time.
A typical cable will have male and female connectors to allow daisy-chaining between devices. An example of an IEEE-488 implementation is a measurement system designed to assess the performance of a chemistry sample sink. A 30-point scanner is used to multiplex data from all of the sensors. The scanner is connected to a desktop or laptop PC using the GPIB interface. Data is acquired, stored, displayed, and reduced using application programs on the PC, efficiently and reliably under IEEE-488.