The MAX485 (now made by Analog Devices, and others) is the interface component you most often hear about, though there are other pin-compatible components from other manufacturers, and the old SN75176 (pre-CMOS) was the same. On the MAX485, A > B is treated as a 1, A < B is a 0. Another way to think about it is "When the output is active, A matches the input pin, B is the inverse of the input". That's the most common convention. And of course for the receive direction, "The received data matches A, and is inverted relative to B".
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