Re: Serial ports - how to get them to coexist peacefully...

["John Quirk" <jq_quirk@hotmail.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "hogan" <hogan@netspace.net.au>
To: <jq_quirk@hotmail.com>; <debian-user@lists.debian.org>; "LUV-talk
mailing list" <luv-talk@luv.asn.au>
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 1:44 AM
Subject: Re: Serial ports - how to get them to coexist peacefully...


Only problem is, seems one of the UART
> chips is missing (unless one 16550 can handle two ports) as there's an
empty
> socket on the board -
You might be able to find another chip on an old junk board and yes you do
need the two chips
for the other port.
> Covers current need for three com ports, but might need one more.. Where
could
> I find info on hacking other cards to use different IRQ/IO combos through
> physical alteration?
I chased this down by looking at the pin outs on the ISA bus, Lots of
documentation on the WEB try this as a start
http://www.gw.total-web.net/~dperr/pc_io.txt and
http://www.gw.total-web.net/~dperr/pc_hdwe.htm

If you old ISA card is so configurable I would try an UART chip for it as it
is much easier to put a chip into a sockect than cutting and soldering
tracks on a circuit board. Note with this quick fix you can only have a MAX
of 4 serial ports. You could in theory change the address of the I/O ports
but you would have to make sure your new I/O port range did not conflict and
that the software is able to work with these non-standard port address.

John Quirk