Multitech ISI552PC Owner's Manual

Intelligent Serial Interface (ISI)

Model ISI552PC Card

Owner's Manual

MultiTech



Systems

Owner's Manual

P/N 82033101, Rev. B

ISI552PC

This publication may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without
prior expressed written permission from Multi-Tech Systems, Inc.. All
rights reserved.

Copyright © 1994, by Multi-Tech Systems, Inc.

Multi-Tech Systems, Inc., makes no representation or warranties with
respect to the contents hereof and specifically disclaims any implied
warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.
Furthermore, Multi-Tech Systems, Inc., reserves the right to revise
this publication and to make changes from time to time in the content
hereof without obligation of Multi-Tech Systems, Inc., to notify any
person or organization of such revisions or changes.

Record of Revision

Revision Description
B Manual revised with minor technical, editorial
(12/25/94) and format changes.

TRADEMARKS

Multi-Tech, MultiExpress, MultiModem

II

and the Multi-Tech logo:

Multi-Tech Systems, Inc.
i386, i486: Intel Corporation

PC-DOS: International Business Machines Corporation

Multi-Tech Systems, Inc.

2205 Woodale Drive

Mounds View, Minnesota 55112 U.S.A.

[phone] or [phone]

U. S. FAX [phone]

Technical Support [phone]
BBS [phone] or [phone]
Internet Address: http://www.multitech.com

Technical Writer: [e-mail]

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION & DESCRIPTION

1.1 Introduction ........................................... 1-1

1.2 Product Description .............................. 1-2

1.3 How to Use This Manual ...................... 1-2

1.4 Technical Specifications ...................... 1-3

CHAPTER 2

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2.1 ISI Card Installation .............................. 2-1

2.2 Determining Current System Settings . 2-1

2.3 Hardware Installation Procedure .......... 2-3

CHAPTER 3

SERVICE, WARRANTY, AND TECHNICAL

SUPPORT

3.1 Introduction ........................................... 3-1

3.2 Limited Warranty .................................. 3-1

3.3 Tech Support ........................................ 3-2

3.3.1 Recording ISI552PC Information 3-3

3.3.2 Service ........................................ 3-4

3.4 About the Multi-Tech BBS.................... 3-5

3.4.1 How to Use the Multi-Tech BBS . 3-5

3.5 About CompuServe/Internet ................ 3-6

3.6 About Multi-Tech's Fax-Back Service .. 3-7

3.7 Safety Warnings ................................... 3-8

Appendix A:
I/O Address Switch Settings A-1

INDEX

1-1

1 . 1 Introduction

The introduction of high speed, data compression
modems, such as Multi-Tech's MultiModem

II TM

Series, has shown that many PC serial ports are
unable to keep up, essentially becoming a bottleneck
for the entire system. The ISI552PC card is a dual
port serial expansion card and provides processing
power to reliably transmit data up to 115.2K bps per
port. Each port can be independently configured for
asynchronous full duplex communications. Using
an ISI enables your system's processor to perform
more efficiently. This is because the ISI handles all
of the byte-by-byte interrupts generated by the
asynchronous terminals and stores the data in
buffers. The ISI then generates one interrupt for an
entire block of information and transfers the block to
the system's microprocessor.

This manual provides the hardware installation
procedures for the ISI552PC card. The operation of
the card provides the basis for its name ISI (Intelligent
Serial Interface), 552 indicating the processing power
of a 16550A UART and dual port support, and PC
indicating that it is an ISA bus card (8 bit), which is
able to operate in any 286, 386, or 486 ISA or EISA
compatible bus personal computer. The ISI552PC
serial ports can be accessed by any software written
to the 16550A specification.

1-2

This manual contains product specification,
installation instructions, configuration and technical
support information which will assist you in the
operation process. It is assumed that you have basic
PC skills at the very least. Therefore, we have not
included step-by-step instructions for basic
operations such as logging in and file editing, etc.

1 . 2 Product Description

The ISI552PC card is a dual-port serial expansion
card which adds data buffering for enhanced serial
port performance. The ISI552PC features two 9-pin
connectors ( DB-9s), and is a "half-size" expansion
card that supports a high-speed interface (up to

115.2K bps per port via 32K bytes of RAM). The
ISI552PC features two banks of 8 DIP-Switches for
I/O address selection and two jumper blocks for IRQ
level selection.

1. 3 How to Use This Manual

This chapter begins with a short introduction, product
description, followed by a guide (which you are now
reading) to the use of this manual, as well as the
ISI552PCs technical specifications.

1-3

This manual includes hardware configuration and
installation procedures described in Chapter 2. Chapter
3 covers technical support, warranty and BBS
information. Appendix A describes complete

information on Base I/O addressing.

1 . 4 Technical Specifications

Computer Requirements

· 286-, 386- or 486- based PC or compatible

Operating Temperature

· 0° to 50°C (32° to 120°F)

Serial Interface

· RS232C, RS232D

Bus Type

· IBM PC standard (ISA bus) or EISA

Power Consumption

· 750 mAmps @ +5 VDC

· 100 mAmps @ +12 VDC

· 100 mAmps @ -12 VDC

1-4

Card Dimensions

ISI552PC

· 4.950" L x 4.2" W x .062" D

· 12.573 cm L x 10.668 cm W x .16 cm D

Baud Rates

· Up to 115.2K bps per port (two)

Connector Types

· Two DB-9s on ISI552PC

I/O Address

· Set by hardware DIP-Switch, valid range 100H to

3F8H (See Appendix A)

Interrupt Request

· Set by hardware Jumper, valid IRQs -- 2, 3, 4, 5,

7, 10, 11, 12, & 15

2-1

2.1 ISI Card Installation

This chapter explains procedures for installing your
ISI552PC card into your ISA or EISA bus personal
computer (PC/XT/AT/PS/2 Models 25 and 30 or
equivalents).

Hardware installation involves:

1) Opening your PC.

2) Setting card configuration (determining
I/O address DIP-Switch setting and IRQ
jumper setting).

3) Installing the card into the PC.

2.2 Determining Current System
Settings

When you install a serial device into your computer,
the processor must have a means of routing
information to and from the device and the device
must have a means of gaining the processor's
attention. These are called Input/Output (I/O)
addresses and Interrupt Requests (IRQs),
respectively. The ISI552PC card requires eight I/O
addresses and one IRQ value which are not used by
any other device in your system. When selecting a
unique base I/O address, be sure that the other

2-2

addresses are also unused. (For example, if you
use the base I/O address of 380h, addresses 380h­387h must be unused.)

To select an unused I/O address and an IRQ value,
it may be necessary to find out which values are
already in use. To determine your system's current
settings, refer to Appendix A. ISI552PC port #1 is
shipped with the IRQ set to level 3 and the base I/O
address at 2F8 hex; and ISI552PC port #2 is shipped
with the IRQ set to level 4 and the base I/O address
at 3E8. If you are certain that these settings are not
already in use, continue with the hardware
configuration and installation.

Note: If you choose IRQ 3 or 4, you may have to
remove the serial I/O device from your
configuration files. The ISI552PC cards do not
allow you to select IRQ 6 because it is almost
universally used for the floppy drive of a
computer. Also, most computers will not be able
to assign IRQ 2 to the ISI because IRQ 2 is used
for slave control.