rreiner@yunexus.YorkU.CA (Richard Reiner) (01/05/91)
Does anyone know of a way to use three serial ports at once on a 386-class machine? I'd like to have a serial mouse, a modem, and a zero-slot LAN all at once, but as far as I know it's not possible, because com1 and com3, and com2 and com4, share IRQ lines. Any suggestions, short of buying a multi-port smart serial card for $500, will be greatly appreciated. --richard
roger@wrq.com (Roger Fulton) (01/07/91)
In article <19812@yunexus.YorkU.CA> rreiner@yunexus.YorkU.CA (Richard Reiner) writes: >Does anyone know of a way to use three serial ports at once on a >386-class machine? I'd like to have a serial mouse, a modem, and a >zero-slot LAN all at once, but as far as I know it's not possible, >because com1 and com3, and com2 and com4, share IRQ lines. > >Any suggestions, short of buying a multi-port smart serial card for >$500, will be greatly appreciated. > >--richard Sure. There are lots of serial cards available that can do com3 and com4 with irq's other than 4 (which com1 uses) and 3 (which com2 uses), and they cost MUCH less than $500. The trick is to get software that's not so brain- dead that you can't configure it to use the IRQ of your choice. Note that common options for com3 and com4 are irq5 and irq2. Roger Fulton roger@wrq.com
powsner@csb1.nlm.nih.gov (Seth M Powsner) (01/07/91)
Check with MicroSpeed, Inc., 44000 Old Warm Springs Blvd, Fremont, CA
94538 phone 415-490-1403. They make a Pointing Device Adapter -- PDA
Board. It is meant for just this problem. When you buy a "bus" version
of their trackball, this is what they include. They also have a nice
replacement for MOUSE.COM which seems to handle Mouse Systems mice,
Logitech, MicroSoft, and their own stuff. Seems to configure automatically.
We've used the board in a couple of different systems. No I/O port
conficts. Interupt is jumper controlled. Did have a minor software
conflict with TOPS. Seems the MOUSE.COM replacement trys to figure out
what interrupt to use on its own if you don't tell it. Picked on the
FlashCard just enought to cause trouble. Solved by giving explicit
IRQ spec when invoked in batch file.
Hope this helps. Seth M Powsner powsner@nlm.nih.gov
PS- Just a satisfied customer. No commercial interests.