[Ham-Computers] RE: Serial Cards

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

Many new computers are comming sans "legacy" ports (the parallel, serial,
and PS/2 keyboard/mouse ports) and floppy drives.  There is an industry-wide
move (led by MS and Intel) to remove legacy ports (as they aren't fully
"plug-n-play") and to use USB or IEEE1394 instead.  AFAIK, Dell was the
first company ship "mainstream" systems without any legacy ports or floppy
drives.  The next thing to go will be PCI and AGP slots as PCI-Express is
now shipping.

Luckily, there are still companies out there that sell PCI cards with serial
ports.  Be forewarned however as PCI-card based serial ports may not map
1-to-1 with legacy serial ports.  What this means is that direct access of
the port may not be possible.  Many older DOS apps use direct access and may
fail with PCI-based serial ports.  Apps that use BIOS calls should work
fine.

On the reflectors that cater to HAMs that use serial ports for logging
and/or rig control, the "Byterunner" serial cards are preferred.  They seem
to have the best compatibility with most apps, DOS or Windows based.  Many
USB-to-serial adapters have compatibility problems with HAM apps and also
will *not* work in DOS.  For Windows based apps, one particular Belkin
USB-to-serial adapter seems to be preferred, but I don't remember which part
number it is.

As to 3.3v vs 5.0v, don't fret too much about it.  5.0v PCI cards haven't
been manufactured since the early days of PCI.

73,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O (ex-KD6DAE)
    {nn6o}@arrl.net
    {athsu}@nbcuni.com
    No-QRO Int'l #1,000,006
    . -..- - .-. .-   ".... . .- ...- -.--"
 


-----Original Message-----
From: ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don
Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2005 1:30 PM
To: Ham-Computers
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Serial Cards


HI all
got a new computer and it had NO SERIAL cards installed
I have 2 in old computer
new computer slots are PCI
and say not to use 3.5 volt cards in slots
how does on determine the voltage on a serial card

Don
KB5FHX
Semper Vilgilans
EAGLES  may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
http://www.jcmsara.org Ham radio link