2
Introduction
1 Overview
VScom provides several models of serial port cards for PCI Express bus, also named PCIe. This
modern serial bus is the successor of several parallel PCI variants. It is a fast bus, and the size
of bus connectors can be very small. Since mainboard design with PCI Express is more easy than
with fast parallel PCI, the classic PCI slots will vanish from modern systems in the future.
Serial ports are required much longer than that. So there is a demand to to implement serial port
boards for PCI Express. VScom has done so with the modern E-series cards, ranging from one to
eight ports. The cards are designed to control industrial hardware via asynchronous serial ports,
as many software requires today.
The supplied drivers for Windows operating system install the serial ports into the Windows API,
so they appear as the usual Com ports software requires. A rich set of driver options is configured
via the Device Manager in Windows. The driver allows to configure the serial ports for a bitrate
of up to 15.6 Mbps. Of course RS 232 can not reliably transport very high bitrates, even under
best conditions 1 Mbit/s is the limit. As the result of the extreme high maximum bitrate, there is
no bitrate below 1 Mbit/s which the cards can not generate. No matter which configuration the
hardware requires, the VScom PCIex cards deliver it.
2 Introduction
This manual describes the hardware of VScom PCIex cards. PCIex is the name used in VScom
products for PCI Express products. Also the Windows driver for these cards is described in detail.
2.1 Features
• PCI Express 1 Lane
• Serial port interface RS 232
• Max 15.625 Mbps
• Huge FIFO buffers 128 Byte
• Drivers for Windows™ operating system
February 2010
VScom PCIex Card User Manual
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