AN1/8S-PCI Blastronix IT All-In-One 8-Port PCI Video Controller

The Blastronix IT AN1/8S-PCI All-In-One 8-Port PCI Video Controller units are single slot PCI-X bus cards with 8 ports of user selectable 232 or 422 serial functionality. The 8 port units utilize a splitter or "octopus" cable which is supplied with a DB78 on one end (connects to the card) and 8 DB9 male connectors fanning out opposite the DB78. The cable length is 1 meter. The serial ports are installed as standard COM(X) devices that look like standard serial ports to the computer and any application software. Therefore the ports are compatible with any application which already knows how to communicate with serial ports. When in RS-422 mode the ports feature a DTE SMPTE pin-out so that each port "looks like" the controller with a DB9 pin straight through cable. Each port is capable of multi-drop functionality and can communicate with up to 32 slave devices at speeds up to 920k baud. On-board jumpers allow for configuration on a port by port bases for RS232, RS422, or 2 wires RS485 functionality. In RS-232 mode, the pin-out is for a DTE device and supports all modem control signals.

These cards feature the Oxford Semiconductor high performance UARTs with user configurable 128 byte FIFOs on board and both transmit and receive interrupt control levels. This allows the user to control how many bytes are received or sent before the onboard FIFO generates an interrupt back to the operating system. Complete driver source code and example code for communicating with the serial ports can be supplied upon request.