High-speed interface cards

December 2002 PLCs, DCSs & Controllers

The PCL-846 Series from Advantech are four-port, high-speed RS422/485 interface cards with transmission speeds of up to 921,6 Kbps. Each port has a 16C550 UART with an on-chip 16-byte FIFO buffer for reliable high-speed serial I/O. The UART buffers data into 16-byte packages before putting it on the bus. This considerably reduces the CPU load and avoids data loss when the system is busy and cannot process the interrupt quickly. The UART is especially useful for high-speed serial I/O under Windows.

All cards utilise on-board optical isolators to protect PCs and equipment against damage from ground loops, increasing system reliability in harsh environments. To further increase reliability, the cards are protected against high voltage surges up to 3000 V.

The RS485 mode automatically senses the direction of incoming data and switches its transmission direction accordingly, making the network look and act as RS232. Application software written for half duplex RS232 can be used without modification and an RS485 network can be simply built, with only two wires.

For more information contact Elton Prytz, ProMicro, 011 706 7913, info@promicro.co.za, www.promicro.co.za

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