The SN65176B and SN75176B differential bus transceivers are designed for bidirectional data communication on multipoint bus transmission lines. They are designed for balanced transmission lines and meet ANSI Standards TIA/EIA-422-B and TIA/EIA-485-A and ITU Recommendations V.11 and X.27.

The SN65176B and SN75176B devices combine a 3-state differential line driver and a differential input line receiver, both of which operate from a single 5-V power supply. The driver and receiver have active-high and active-low enables, respectively, that can be connected together externally to function as a direction control. The driver differential outputs and the receiver differential inputs are connected internally to form differential input/output (I/O) bus ports that are designed to offer minimum loading to the bus when the driver is disabled or V_CC = 0. These ports feature wide positive and negative common-mode voltage ranges, making the device suitable for party-line applications.

The driver is designed for up to 60 mA of sink or source current. The driver features positive and negative current limiting and thermal shutdown for protection from line-fault conditions. Thermal shutdown is designed to occur at a junction temperature of approximately 150°C. The receiver features a minimum input impedance of 12 kΩ, an input sensitivity of ±200 mV, and a typical input hysteresis of 50 mV.