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1 General Information
The Quatech, Inc. DSC-200/300 provides two RS-422 or RS-485 asynchronous serial
communication interfaces for IBM-compatible personal computer systems using the PCI
expansion bus. The DSC-200/300 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 DSC-200/300 requires no hardware configuration. The card is
automatically configured by the computer's BIOS or operating system. The two serial ports share
a single interrupt line and are addressed in a contiguous block of 32 bytes. A special interrupt
status register is provided to help software to manage the shared interrupt.
The DSC-200/300's serial ports use 16550 Universal Asynchronous
Receiver/Transmitters (UARTs). These UARTs contain hardware buffers (FIFOs) which reduce
processing overhead and allow higher data rates to be achieved. The 16550 contains a 16-byte
FIFO and can transmit and receive data at a rate of up to 921,600 bits per second. The 16550 is
recommended for heavy multitasking environments and for applications involving high data
rates.
The DSC-200/300 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.
Quatech DSC-200/300 User's Manual 5