ACCES I/O Products Releases 6 New Isolated PCI Express RS-232/422/485 Serial Communication Cards with Speeds up to 3 Mbps

2kV isolation is provided between channels and between the PC and bus lines on ALL signals. The cards feature a x1 lane PCI Express connector which can be used in any available x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, or x16 PCI Express expansion slot. The PCIe-ICM product line has been designed for use in retail, hospitality, automation, gaming, shipboard, and defense industries along with applications such as point of sale systems and kiosk design.

Each RS-232 port is capable of supporting data communication rates up to 921.6 kbps and implement full modem control signals to ensure compatibility with a broad variety of serial devices. RS-422 and RS-485 modes support data communication speeds up to 3 Mbps. Existing serial peripherals can connect directly to industry standard DB9M connectors which are provided on-board each card.

The PCIe-ICM cards were designed using type 16C950 UARTS and use 128-byte transmit/receive FIFO buffers to decrease CPU loading and protect against lost data in multitasking systems. New systems can continue to use legacy serial peripherals, yet benefit from the use of the high performance PCI Express bus. The cards are fully software compatible with current PCI 16550 type UART applications and allow for users to maintain backward compatibility.

The PCIe-ICM Series is especially useful in applications where high common-mode external voltages are present. Isolation is required to guard electronics from transient voltage spikes and offers greater common-mode noise rejection in electrically noisy surroundings containing industrial machinery and inductive loads. These applications include factory automation, energy management, military/mission-critical, industrial ON/OFF control, security systems, manufacturing test, process monitoring, and kiosks. In addition to protecting industrial applications from accidental contact with high external voltages, the isolation provided eliminates troublesome ground loops.

Available accessories include a broad range of cables, screw terminal boards and breakout connection boxes for a variety of quick and easy connectivity options.
Key features of the PCIe-ICM family include:

* 4, and 2-port PCI Express serial communication cards (6 models to choose from)
* 2kV isolation port to port and port to computer on all signals
* Software selectable RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485 protocols, per port
* High performance 16C950 class UARTs with 128-byte FIFO for each TX and RX
* Supports data communication speeds up to 3 Mbps simultaneously (RS-232 up to 921.6 kbps)
* Custom baud rates easily configured
* ±15kV ESD protection on all signal pins
* Full modem control signals in RS-232 mode
* Software compatible with all operating systems
* On-board industry-standard DB9M connectivity
* 9-bit data mode and RS-485 full-duplex (4-wire) fully supported
* RS-232 only, RoHS, and extended temperature (-40°C to +85°C) versions available

A complete driver support package is provided including an easy-to-use Windows terminal program for testing your COM ports. This simplifies the verification of proper COM port operation. The cards install as standard COM ports in all operating systems including DOS, Linux (including Mac OS X) and Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7.