Specifications
3.6 USING
THE
NON-STANDARD V40 SERIAL
PORT
As
discussed previously, the non-standard V 40 serial
port
generally requires custom
or
modi-
fied software for its use. Chapters 4
and
5 provide technical information for
use
by
engineers
and
programmers
regarding use
of
this port.
Two
Ampro
device drivers simplify the use
of
this
port
as either a serial console
port
or
as a
serial printer port. These applications
are
discussed briefly in
the
following paragraphs,
and
are
described
in
detail
in
Appendix A.
3.6.1 SerIal Console Option
In
many
embedded applications it
is
desirable
to
substitute
an
RS232C serial device (terminal,
remote
computer,
or
other
serial
device)
for
the
video
controller,
monitor,
and
keyboard
normally used as
the
PC
console device.
The
serial console device
can
be
connected
to
the
board's non-standard V40 serial port.
The
Ampro
CONDRVR.syS
device driver contains
the
required
support
for serial console input
and
serial console output. Serial console support
parameters
are
specified in
the
CONFIG.syS
fIle, using the
CONDRVR.syS
device driver
as
described
in
Appendix A.
Note
Many
DOS
programs
use
ROM-BIOS
display
control
func:tions,
or
write
direcdy
to
video
RAM.
Such
software
cannot
be
used
on
a
serial
console
device
(e.g.
ASCII
terminal),
with
the
exception
of
programs
intended
to
be
used
with
the
DOS
ANSI.SYS
driver
if
the
terminal
is
ANSI
compatible.
On
the
other
hand,
programs
which
output
appropriate
terminal
control
strings
to
the
console,
or
which
are
specifically installed
for
the
particular
serial
display device,
can
be
used.
3.6.2 Serial Printer Option
By
using
the
Ampro
PRMDRVR.SYS
device driver supplied with
the
Little
BoardlPC,
you
can
use
the
board's
non-standard
V 40
serial
port
as
a
DOS
LPTl
printer
device.
This
is
useful
in
installations where
use
of
a serial printer
is
required.
For
additional information,
refer
to
the
description
of
the
PRNDRVR.SYS
device driver in
Appendix
A.
3-7