User`s guide
Hardware and Software Requirements
Use of these utilities requires an IBM PC compatible with the MS-DOS 2.1 operating system (or greater).
If you wish to translate or format LIF files located on an external drive you must have an SS/80 drive
connected to your PC with an HP-IB card. The LIF utilities recognize all HP SS/80 drives including the
HP 9122, HP 9133 (D,H,L), HP 9127A and HP 9153A. Older disk drives (AMIGO command set) such
as the HP 9121, HP 9133 (V, X, or XV) will not work. (SS/80 disks are a subset of HP CS/80 disks.)
There are no requirements for internal disk drives.
The HP 88500A and HP 82335 HP-IB cards, as well as the National GPIB PCII and AT-GPIB cards are
recognized. Make sure that your HP-IB (or GPIB) is set to System Controller, the default switch setting.
Caution Disk cache programs may interfere with the LIF utilities access to the
internal floppy disk drives and may cause disk read errors or program lockup.
We recommend that disk cache programs not be used in conjunction with
these utilities.
You can use the SMARTDrive disk caching software provided with Microsoft Windows
3.0.
Note The utilities will work with both an HP and a National card installed simultaneously.
For example, you can LIF copy files from a disk drive on the HP card to a disk drive on
the National Instrument card.
Both BDAT and ASCII LIF files may be converted to DOS. (Binary LIF files are copied in
raw mode.)
Note When using these utilities, remember the following:
• The LIF utilities do not format internal disks (only external).
• It’s not possible to initialize a LIF directory onto an unformatted disk.
File System Conversion (LIF/DOS)
Hardware and Software Requirements
3-2