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1 General Information
The Quatech, Inc. ESC-100 provides eight RS-232 asynchronous serial
communication interfaces for IBM-compatible personal computer systems using the
PCI expansion bus. The ESC-100 uses Quatech's new Enhanced Serial Adapter design.
Legacy serial port data rates are limited to a maximum of 115,200 bits per second.
Quatech Enhanced Serial Adapters can achieve data rates as high as 921,600 bits per
second.
As a PCI device, the ESC-100 requires no hardware configuration. The card is
automatically configured by the computer's BIOS or operating system. The eight serial
ports share a single interrupt line and are addressed in a contiguous block of 64 bytes.
A special interrupt status register is provided to help software to manage the shared
interrupt.
The ESC-100's serial ports are using 16750 Universal Asynchronous
Receiver/Transmitters (UARTs). These UARTs contain hardware buffers (FIFOs) which
reduce processing overhead and allow higher data rates to be achieved. The 16750
contains a 64-byte FIFO and can transmit and receive data at a rate of up to 921,600 bits
per second.
The ESC-100 is supported under several popular operating systems and
environments. Contact the sales department for details on current software offerings.
Most device drivers are available for download from the Quatech world wide web site
at http://www.quatech.com.
1.1 Connector Type
The ESC-100 is available with two different connector schemes, reflected in the
specific model number of the board.
The ESC-100D uses a D-78 connector. A cable is supplied to break each serial
port out into a standard male D-25 connector. All modem control signals are provided
for each serial port.
The ESC-100M uses modular RJ-11 (phone jack style) connectors, one per serial
port. Only six signals are available on the RJ-11 connector. Along with the transmit
(TXD) and receive data (RXD) signals, carrier detect (DCD) and a ground, either the
RTS/CTS signal pair or the DTR/DSR signal pair can be connected. The other signal
pair can be connected in a loopback configuration on the board. Optional adapter
cables translate the RJ-11 connectors to D-25 connectors with customer-configurable
pinouts.
Quatech ESC-100 User's Manual
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