Installation guide

AlphaNET Installation Guide, Revision 05
Chapter 4 - Installing SerialNET
This chapter gives you an overview of the hardware used by SerialNET. SerialNET uses the existing
serial terminal interface hardware on your computer.
Due to the availability of serial interfaces on every Alpha Micro computer, SerialNET makes an ideal
interconnection for setting up gateways between networks.
Because Alpha Micro has used a wide variety of serial interfaces over the years, there are some
differences in capabilities and performance between these different interfaces when used with SerialNET.
In particular, not all of the interfaces support hardware handshaking. Those interfaces which fully support
SerialNET with hardware handshaking include:
AM-1006 AM-1000 Expansion Ports
AM-1003 AM-1000 Expansion Ports (Non-Z80 controlled)
AM-1203 AM-1200 Expansion Ports
AM-130/134 AM-1400 Expansion Ports
AM-355 AM-1500/AM-2000 Expansion Ports
AM-135 AM-1600 Expansion Ports
AM-145 AM-2000M Expansion Ports
AM-185 AM-3000 Expansion Ports
AM-355B AM-3000M Expansion Ports
AM-140 AM-3000M Serial Ports
By using hardware handshaking, speeds up to 57.6 Kbaud is supported. Other interfaces without
hardware handshaking are not recommended for use with SerialNET.
The AM-310, AM-1013, and AM-1213 boards are not recommended for use with SerialNET. While the
AM-350 board is very useful for speeding up computer throughput, it is not the place to connect the
SerialNET to
use an AM-355 port off the CPU board.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The basic features and capabilities of SerialNET are:
• Full AlphaNET support using a low-cost, point-to-point link.
• Support for communication speeds up to 57.6 Kbaud.
• Multiple SerialNET connections can be made to a single computer.
SerialNET Specifications