Jim Robertson wrote:
>>You are right about the comport shortage but the same
>>can be said for the parallel port.

     Jim, it is not a shortage of com ports that is the problem, it is the
     shortage of free interrupts. ALL my interrupts are tied up on my PC,
     making it impossible to add additional serial ports. I read an article
     a month or two ago in PC magazine that complained that new PC's are
     commonly being shipped these days with NO FREE INTERRUPTS, which makes
     future expansion nearly impossible. With a parallel port device the
     software can poll the port without requiring an interrupt to service
     it.

     PCI adapters can share interrupts, but only if the software driver
     supports it. All devices connected to a SCSI bus share a single
     interrupt, but we don't have any SCSI device programmers. :>
     Eventually, USB should make our interrupt headaches go away, but for
     now, it is esier for many people to add another parallel port to their
     PC than to try to find a free interrupt to support a serial port.


     CIAO - Martin.