Also, if you want lot's of UARTs, Phillips make a chip called SCC2698B,
which provides no less than "eight full-duplex asynchronous
receiver/transmitter channels" in DIP64 or PLCC84.  It is also easy to
interface to a PIC (needs 8 bit data bus, 5 address, /RD and /WR lines,
that's less i/o pins than 8 bit-banged channels).  Not to mention faster
speeds, and no bit rate error :^P

At 05:33 PM 2/9/00 -0000, you wrote:
>Hi all
>
>Sorry this is off topic...But is need for a PIC project.....
>
>Does anybody know of a bidirectional RS-232 drive IC...with as many lines as
>possible..
>
>Thanks
>
>Jonathan Ferguson
>Radiation/Microelectronic Group
>Lancaster University
>
>

David Lions
Lab Technician
Miva Corporation