Fast throughput from dual UART / PCI bridge chip

Integrating two high performance UARTs, a 3.3V PCI / mini PCI interface and a parallel port / local bus in a 160 LQFP package, the OXmPCI952 provides a sustained data throughput of 60Mbps in isochronous mode and 15Mbps in asynchronous mode.

128 byte transmit and receive FIFOs on each UART channel enable the OXmPCI952 to reduce CPU interrupts and boost the speed of PCI and Mini PCI serial and parallel add-in cards.

To help simplify driver and hardware design, the UARTs are compatible with industry standard 16C550 devices. The chip's PCI interface is also fully compliant with PCI bus version 3.0 and PCI power management version 1.1 specifications.

A versatile device, the OXmPCI952 offers two distinct modes of operation. Function 0 offers the fast dual UART capability while Function 1 provides either an 8-bit local bus or a bi-directional IEEE1284 parallel port supporting SPP, PS2, EPP and ECP protocols.

Serial card applications requiring more than two UART channels are also possible using the IC's 8-bit pass-through local bus option, which enables the chips to be cascaded to create up to 18 serial ports.

To improve device driver efficiency and reduce interrupt latency, each UART has multi-port features including shadowed FIFO levels, a global interrupt source register and a Good-Data status indicator. Programmable threshold and fill level registers ensure comprehensive software control.

The OXmPCI952 is supported by software drivers for Windows NT, XP and Mac OSX, with Linux drivers available from third party sources. A PCI card design note, PCB schematics and application notes are also available.

Oxford Semiconductor's dual UART PCI interface chip is $7.22 in 1000 piece quantities.