ADLINK C514 - Manual (Page 9)

Introduction
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Introduction
The ADLINK series of PCI-based serial communication cards are intelligent
serial input/output multi-port controller cards that improve system perform-
ance by reducing the interrupt interval from the serial communication con-
troller to the system’s CPU. Traditionally, serial communication controllers
interrupt the MPU one character at a time. This wastes MPU processing time
and lowers system computing power, which can lead to serial controller
overflow and lost data. This serial communication interface series supports
local processor buffering and dual port RAM in each port’s transmit and re-
ceive channel simultaneously to reduce the number of interrupts and increase
the non-interrupt task’s interval. This serial communication interface series
also uses an ASIC PCI controller to interface with the PCI bus. This ASIC fully
implements PCI local bus specification Rev. 2.1. All bus configurations, such
as base memory address and interrupt assignment, are automatically con-
trolled by the BIOS and do NOT require any user interaction.