Fastcom®: 232/8-PCI Asynchronous Eight Port RS232 Interface Adapter   $629.00

Fastcom®: 232/8-PCI Cable

DB78 plug to eight DB25 plugs (Included)

The FASTCOM: 232/8-PCI adapter supports baud rates up to 725 Kbps¹, and is the most advanced eight-port RS232 adapter in the industry. Primarily designed for commercial, industrial, and OEM applications, the FASTCOM: 232/8-PCI features eight discrete RS232 channels, complete with RTS, CTS, DTR, DSR, DCD, and RI control signals.

The advanced 16C854 UART on the FASTCOM: 232/8-PCI features full compatibility with standard 16C550 and 16C650 UARTs, but also provides extraordinary 128-byte receive and transmit FIFOs for buffering. This buffering is extremely important when working with high-overhead operating systems such as Windows NT and 2000 (drivers supplied). The extra-deep FIFOs prevent data loss due to overrun and dramatically improve data throughput in all applications. Our software drivers support all standard and non-standard baud rates up to 725 Kbps¹.

Software examples and drivers are supplied for Windows 98/2000/NT/XP, and Linux Kernel 2.4.x. These drivers allow the board to be "just another com port" in the system. Programming is done using the standard WIN32 COMM API.

The FASTCOM: 232/8-PCI is a switchless design that relies on the plug-and-play functionality capability defined in the PCI 2.1 bus specification to determine address ranges and IRQ settings.

• UART: EXAR 16C854 (Data Sheet)
• INTERFACE: RS232
• SIGNALS:
  • TXD, RXD, RTS, CTS, DSR, DCD, DTR, RI
• BUS: PCI
• BAUD RANGE: All standard PC baud rates; easily select any non-standard baud rates from 1 bps to 725 Kbps¹

• +5 500mA (typical)
• +12 100mA (typical)
• -12 100mA (typical)

• Storage Temperature Range: -20 to +70 C
• Operating Temperature Range: 0 to 70 C
• Humidity: 0 to 90% (non-condensing)

• CE Certified
• Eight independent RS232 channels
• High performance 16C854 UARTs
  Standard on the FASTCOM: 232/8-PCI, no extra charge
• All standard and non-standard baud rates up to 725 Kbps¹
  Features on-board clock generator to easily attain non-standard rates without
  modifying the hardware or changing the clock.
• 128-byte FIFOs for improved through-put
  
  • 128-byte RX FIFO with programmable level control
  • 128-byte TX FIFO with programmable level control
    
• Six layer board design
• All ports share a single PCI interrupt
• Durable Cable and RFI shielding
  
  • Cable assembly: DB25 Male plug
  • Other cable configurations available upon request
    
• Cable, documentation, and software drivers included
• Designed and manufactured by COMMTECH, INC. Wichita, Kansas, USA

(d) = approximate MAX cable length in feet (bps) = estimated MAX baud rate at given length

d = ( -1.77*10-4 * bps ) + 134

bps = ( -5600 * d ) + 7.59*104

Equations are based on experiments using Olympic cable number 2829 with 30pf/ft nominal capacitance at a maximum of 83 ft (CL not to exceed 2500 pico farads per EIA-232). These equations are an estimate of the maximum capabilities in users' environment, different cable capacitance will yield different results.