IEEE-488 allows up to 15 devices to share a single bus by daisy-chaining. The maximum data rate is about one megabyte per second. The 16 signal lines within the passive interconnecting HP-IB cable are grouped into three clusters according to their functions: Data Bus, Data Byte Transfer Control Bus, and General Interface Management Bus.
Some ancient computers used this bus widely: the Commodore PET/CBM range of educational/home/personal computers, whose disk drives, printers, modems, etc, were daisy-chain connected to the (host) computer, talking and listening on the designated bus lines to perform their jobs. All of Commodores post-PET/CBM 8-bit machines, from the VIC-20 to the C128, utilized a proprietary serial IEEE-488 for peripherals, with round DIN connectors instead of the heavy-duty HP-IB plugs. Several manufacturers used IEEE-488 as a peripheral interface to connect disk drives, tape drives, printers, plotters and advanced pocket calculators to their workstation products.