Serial Communications Products

Serial communication products are used in industrial and commercial systems to transmit data bit-by-bit, or sequentially, over a single wire. There are several major categories of serial communication products. Serial servers allow serial devices to be connected directly to a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) without the use of a personal computer (PC). Serial hubs allow the transparent connectivity of serial devices such as industrial instruments, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, and barcode printers with LANs and WANs. Serial adapters provide one or more serial ports to a host computer. Serial data converters are used to convert data from one serial standard to another. Serial routers are protocol-dependent devices that connect subnetworks. Serial multiplexers are telecommunications devices that funnel multiple signals onto a single channel. Other types of serial communication products are also commonly available.

Serial communication products use RS232, RS422, and/or RS485 protocols. RS232 is a popular standard which provides asynchronous communication capabilities with hardware flow control, software flow control, and parity check. The typical transmission speed for RS232 is 9600 bps at 15 m. RS422 uses a differential transmission technology and provides high-speed transmissions up to 10 Mbps, and maximum transmission distances up to 1.2 km at 110 kbps. RS422 supports much longer transmission distances than RS232, but with less signal line. Unlike RS423, a serial interface which supports only point-to-point connections, RS422 supports multipoint connections. RS485 is similar to RS232, but uses three-way instead of two-way transmissions. Typically, RS485 serial communication products are used in applications where a single controller needs to control multiple devices. 

Network or bus type is an important specification to consider when selecting serial communication products. Choices include 10Baset-T or twisted-pair Ethernet, 10Base-2 or thinnet, 100Base-T or Fast Ethernet, 10/100Base-T or fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), and Gigabit Ethernet. Serial communication products that use small computer systems interface (SCSI) and the VersaModule Eurocard bus (VMEbus) are also available. Choices may also include fieldbus, controller area network bus (CANbus), control network (ControlNet), DeviceNet, attached resource computer network (ARCNET), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), compact PCI (cPCI), PCI extensions for instrumentation (PXI), and general-purpose interface bus (GPIB). Proprietary standards for serial communication products include PROFIBUS^®, a registered trademark of PROFIBUS International, and FireWire^® (Apple Computer, Inc.).

• Serial Communications Guide for CP210x
  This document is intended for developers creating products based on the CP210x USB to UART Bridge Controller. It provides information about serial communications and how to obtain the port number for...
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• Using a Timer to Interface PIC18 MCUs with UNI/O(TM) Bus-Compatible Serial EEPROMs
  AN1187 Using a Timer to Interface PIC18 MCUs with UNI/O™ Bus-Compatible Serial EEPROMs The main features of 11XXX serial EEPROMs are: Author: Pinakin K. Makwana * Single I/O pin used for...
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• Interfacing PIC18 MCUs with UNI/O(TM) Bus-Compatible Serial EEPROMs
  AN1183 Interfacing PIC18 MCUs with UNI/O™ Bus-Compatible Serial EEPROMs The main features of 11XXX serial EEPROMs are: Author: Chris Parris * Single I/O pin used for communication Microchip...
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Part Numbers for Serial Communications Products