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Why are Chase Research multiport serial I/O cards so inexpensive compared to the competition?
The Chase Research AT-FAST and PCI-FAST cards use intelligent UART’s instead of expensive on-board processors to provide high performance serial communication.

We do this because, today’s Pentium PC’s are so powerful that they consume the I/O processing required without the user noticing any loss in performance. This removes the need for multiport cards to have expensive on-board processors.

Note: Chase Research was the 1^st company to manufacture and market intelligent serial I/O cards – the AT range back in 1986.

Surely I need an intelligent multiport card with an on board processor?
No, see above.  Alternatively, if your host is connected to a LAN, you could use multiple IOLAN+ communication servers connected directly onto the Ethernet network.

Why is the serial port speed 460.8 kbps? Does this mean I will be able to transfer data at this speed?
The serial line must be faster than the highest burst rate at which the data can move, otherwise it becomes the bottleneck.

Both AT-FAST and PCI-FAST send data at 460.8 kbps but, in practice, the other pieces of the data link (i.e. modems) often slow down the throughput. The important part here is that the Chase Research multiport card will never slow down the throughput.

Is the PCI-FAST card faster than the equivalent AT-FAST?
Not really. The PCI-FAST cards simply offer compatibility with PC’s that have a PCI bus. It is also plug and play which makes setup and installation much easier.

Note: All new PC’s and motherboards are manufactured with mainly PCI slots and a limited number (1 or 2) of ISA slots. AT-FAST is ISA compatible.

My application only has port speed settings for 115.2 kbps. How do I take advantage of higher baud rates?
The Chase Research drivers include a baud rate mapping feature whereby baud rates above 38.4 kbps are mapped onto (usually unused) low baud rates.

For instance, choosing a baud rate of 134 bps causes the hardware to run at 230.4 kbps.

What is a typical device that will need baud rates higher than 115.2 kbps?

Besides a lot of datacomm equipment, both 56 kbps modems and ISDN terminal adapters are capable of speeds in excess of 115.2 kbps.

The AT-FAST and PCI-FAST cards are ideal partners for these types of devices, allowing high throughput of data and keeping the costs to a minimum.

prices and specifications may change without notice. E.& O. E.