The interface IEEE 488 (IEEE 488.1 and its versions and 488.2) was designed to connect and control programmable instruments, and to provide a standard interface for communication between instruments from different manufacturers. Hewlett-Packard originally developed this technology and the HP-IB call. The interface quickly gained popularity in the industry due to its versatility, and it was precisely for this reason that the IEEE committee adopted it and renamed it GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus). The great advantage of this interface is to enable communication between different computers without having to know exactly nothing about them or about the data format they use.