The communication driver described in this SAE RecommendedPractice resides on the PC between the SAE J1708 hardware and theindividual application programs developed by each supplier. Fromthe perspective of the application program, the SAE J1708 hardwareis totally transparent. This means diagnostic programs can operateon any PC using any SAE J1708 adapter hardware. The diagnosic(application) program sees no different from one hardware base tothe next. All hardware-specific tasks are handled by this document.This allows for complete portability of software programs. It alsoguarantees complete functionality from one hardware platform to thenext.

The standard presented applies to computer systems that use theMS-DOS operating system. Design standards that contain the samefunctionality may be defined in the future for other operatingsystems.