1.GENERAL INFORMATION
The Quatech, Inc. ES-100D provides eight RS-232 asynchronous serial communication interfaces for IBM-compatible personal computer systems using the 16-bit ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) expansion bus.
The ES-100D's serial ports are implemented using 16450 Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitters (UARTs). For higher performance, 16550 UARTs can be installed in place of the 16450 UARTs. The 16550 contains a hardware buffer that reduces processing overhead. Software must be aware of the 16550 UART for the device's extra capabilities to be used, otherwise it will act as a 16450 UART. The 16550 is suggested for multitasking environments and for applications involving high data rates.
The ES-100D is highly flexible with respect to addressing and interrupt level use. The serial ports are addressed in a contiguous block that can be placed anywhere within the range of 0000 hex to FFFF hex, and available interrupt levels include IRQ2 to IRQ7, IRQ10 to IRQ12, IRQ14, or IRQ15.
All ports on the ES-100D share one interrupt level. A special interrupt status register is provided to allow controlling software to manage the shared interrupt level. The shared interrupt feature minimizes the system resources consumed by the adapter.
In order to support the use of the shared interrupt feature of the ES-100D, Quatech has developed device drivers for several popular operating systems and environments. The sales department can be contacted for details on current offerings.
Quatech ES-100D User's Manual | 1 |