Agilent Technologies 8960 Series Reference Manual page 198

Test System Synchronization Overview
Figure 2.
GPIB
External Controller
Sequential versus overlapped commands
The test set uses both sequential and overlapped commands:
• Sequential commands must finish executing before the next command starts to execute.
• Overlapped commands do not finish executing before the next command starts to execute.
Overlapped commands are more difficult to synchronize because an overlapped operation that started several commands
earlier may still be executing as subsequent commands are being parsed out from the input buffer and executed. This can
present a problem unless the external controller is properly synchronized to the test set's execution of commands.
Overlapped commands allow the test set to use its internal resources as efficiently as possible.
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S:\Hp8960\E1963A WCDMA\4.0 release\Reference Guide\Chapters\wcdma_prog_sync_gen.fm
Test System
RS 232
I/O Control
Test Set
Mobile Station