Black Box IC126C User manual

Short a port or two? Add these cards and
start running your super-fast peripherals!
Short a port or two? Add these cards and
start running your super-fast peripherals!
PC Plus Adapters
© 2007. All rights reserved. Black Box Corporation.
FREE 24-hour Tech Support: 724-746-5500
blackbox.com

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FEATURES
• Fast 16650 UART chips. Integrated
32-byte FIFO buffer enables
faster throughput.
• Serial models are 100% compatible
with V.90 external modems and ISDN
terminal adapters.
• Serial cards run at 460.8 kbps. The
IC129C and IC146C parallel cards have
a top rate of 2.5 MBps. And the IC126C
parallel card has a top data rate of
7.2 MBps!
• The IC129C supports ECP and EPP.
OVERVIEW
These six adapters feature the 16650 UART chip for fast
performance. A roomy 32-KB buffer virtually eliminates
lost data and lags from retries and resends. These adapters
remove communication roadblocks using technology built
to handle throughput.
PC Plus HS Parallel PCI Adapter (IC126C)
Free up scarce PCI slots while adding a high-speed
parallel port. This high-speed card achieves throughput of
up to 7.2 MBps—two to three times faster than standard
parallel throughput.
PC Plus RS-232 Serial ISA Adapter (IC127C)
This card is compatible with V.34 external modems and
ISDN terminal adapters. It’s configurable as COM 1 through
COM 4 using an IRQ of 2/3/4/5/10/11/12/15. Includes drivers
for Windows®95/98 and Windows NT®.
PC Plus Dual Serial PCI Adapter (IC128C-R3)
This PCI card has two high-speed serial ports and is 100%
compatible with all 56K external modems and ISDN terminal
adapters. It includes drivers for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT.
PC Plus Enhanced Parallel ISA Adapter (IC129C)
Send data as fast as your new parallel printer can print it!
This card has an ultra-fast Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) with
a maximum transfer rate of 2.5 MBps!
It supports both Enhanced Capabilities Port (ECP) and
EPP standards. Configure it as LPT1 through LPT6 using IRQs
2/3/4/5/7/ 10/11/12, DMA1/3. The adapter supports hexadec-
imal addresses 03BC, 0378, 0278, 0238, 0288, and 0338. It’s
backward compatible with 4-bit and 8-bit (bidirectional)
parallel ports and requires no special drivers.
RS-232 HS Serial PCI Card (IC145C)
This plug-and-play card gives you one super-fast 460.8-
kbps comm port for connecting your modems and other serial
equipment. It slides into the PCI slot and shares IRQs, so you
can use it even if you have no IRQs left.
You don’t have to worry about compatibility; the card
works with all 56K external modems and external ISDN
terminal adapters.
Dual Parallel PCI Card (IC146C)
Add two accelerated parallel printer ports to your PCI-
equipped PC. This card gives you two EPPs that run up to
three times faster than standard ports. You save on IRQs, too,
because both ports share one. The card handles simultaneous
data throughput and is compatible with any parallel device,
including legacy devices.
If you’re not getting the performance you expect from a
high-speed modem or ISDN terminal adapter, it may be the
fault of your PC’s serial port. Serial ports on older PCs just can’t
handle the speeds demanded by today’s high-speed equipment.
The speed of a serial port is dependent on the type of
UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) chip it
uses. Older Pentium®PCs usually have serial ports based on
the 16550 UART chip which are limited to 115.2 kbps—less
than the 128 kbps supported by most ISDN terminal adapters.
And because of their limited 16K buffer, they’re prone to
frequent buffer overflows and retransmission of entire blocks
of data. Because of these factors, the highest actual speed
16550 chips can achieve is in the neighborhood of 80 kbps.
(And most 486 PCs have I/O chips that are even slower than
the 16550 chips!)
16650 speed.
16550 UARTs can’t keep up with 33.6- and 56-kbps
modems, and they can’t even touch 128-kbps ISDN speed.
For that, you need a faster serial port—a serial port based
on the 16650 UART.
Unlike the 16550 UART, the 16650 UART supports data-
transfer rates up to 460.8 kbps (including 115.2 and 230.4 kbps).
Double the buffer.
The robust 32K buffer—twice the size of the 16550
16K buffer—helps to ensure that high data rates can be
maintained without speed-dampening overflows.
Instead of the CPU having to verify the buffer status each
time it loads a byte into the UART, the 16650 UART enables
the CPU to send and receive data bursts directly from the
port without error.
The FIFO buffer in the 16650 UART can even be custom-
configured for the most efficient operation. Transmit and
receive triggers can be set up to interrupt the CPU only when
the buffer has filled to a predetermined level—leaving the
CPU free to perform other important tasks.
Technically Speaking
THE BENEFITS OF PCI BUSES
A Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus enhances
both speed and throughput. A PCI local bus is a high-
performance bus that provides a processor-independent
data path between the CPU and high-speed peripherals.
PCI is a robust interconnect interface designed specifically
to accommodate multiple high-performance peripherals
for graphics, full-motion video, SCSI, and LANs.

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TECH SPECS
Card Type — IC127C, IC129C: ISA;
IC126C, IC128C-R3, IC145C–IC146C: PCI
Speed — IC126C: 7.2 MBps;
IC127C, IC128C-R3, IC145C: 460.8 kbps;
IC129C, IC146C: 2.5 MBps
Operating Systems Supported — Windows®95/98, Windows NT®
(call Tech Support about Windows 2000)
CE Approval — IC127C, IC128C-R3, IC129C
Connectors — IC126C, IC129C: (1) DB25;
IC127C, IC145C: (1) DB9;
IC128C-R3: (2) DB9;
IC146C: (2) DB25
Power — From the PC bus
Size — 3⁄4card
Item Code
PC Plus Adapters
HS Parallel PCI IC126C
RS-232 Serial ISA IC127C
Dual Serial PCI IC128C-R3
Enhanced Parallel ISA IC129C
RS-232 HS Serial PCI IC145C
Dual Parallel PCI IC146C
For serial modem connections…
AT®Modem Cable, Premium, 9-Conductor,
DB9 Female/DB25 Male EVMBMC
For parallel printer connections…
Enhanced Parallel Port Cable,
DB25 Male/Centronics®Male EQN202
For the RS-232 HS Serial PCI…
AT Modem Cable, Standard, 9-Conductor,
DB9 Female/DB25 Male BC00301
For the Dual Parallel PCI…
Parallel Printer Cable, Centronics
Male/DB25 Male EYN600
IC127C
Continued...
Flow control.
Unlike a 16550 UART, which is a “dumb” device, the
16650 UART is capable of detecting flow-control signals
without intervention from the CPU.
In fact, the only thing the CPU ever sees from the 16650
UART is a request to load the buffer or to retrieve data.
No transmission retry is ever required. Overrun errors are
virtually impossible.
EPP and ECP.
The requirements of high-speed peripheral devices such
as printers have led to the development of enhanced parallel
standards known as EPP and ECP.
EPP, which stands for Enhanced Parallel Port, increases
parallel port throughput to the same speed as the ISA bus.
EPP ports are also 8-bit bidirectional, making them ideal for
high-speed peripherals such as parallel port modems.
ECC, or Enhanced Capabilities Port, is a refinement of EPP.
Although ECP ports operate at the same speeds as EPP, their
design gives you even faster data transfer rates. ECP ports
have DMA (Direct Memory Access) capability, so data can
be channeled directly to memory, bypassing the CPU—an
important feature given the overhead demands of modern
multitasking operating systems.
The IC129A adapter, for example, is compatible with EPP
and ECP and is also backward compatible with 4- and 8-bit
parallel standards.
Technically Speaking