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1993-05-22
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USERS MANUAL
X.00 A Low Level Serial I/O Communications Driver
for MS DOS and like Operating Systems.
Copyright (c) 1993 by Raymond L. Gwinn
12469 Cavalier Drive
Woodbridge, Virginia 22192
All Rights Reserved
May 22, 1993
Fidonet address 1:265/104 (Routed mail only)
Compuserve 72570,157
Internet 72570.157@Compuserve.com
Data 703-494-0098
FAX 703-494-0595
i
INTRODUCTION
Previously, the documentation for X00 was little more than a
collection of notes. The notes were added to as the development
process continued and enhancements were made. I honestly did not
suspect that X00 would become as widely used as it is. This
manual is an attempt at some decent documentation for X00.
But who do I document for? The user that is setting up a BBS
just wants to get X00 installed and to move on to more important
things. The user that is having problems needs information about
serial I/O communications in general and the PC specifically.
The application developer (programmer) needs detailed information
about each individual function and the information generated.
This manual is intended for the X00 user. A separate Application
Programmers manual is being written.
This manual and the software distributed with it is provided with
no guarantees. Use at your own risk.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHAT IS X00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Licensing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Non-Commercial License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Commercial License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Commercial license fasttrack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Installing X00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
OVERVIEW OF X00 USAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
X00 loaded as a DOS Device Driver . . . . . . . . . 6
X00 loaded as a TSR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
COMn and PORTn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Specifying number of ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
B option, Locking Baud, Data, Parity and Stop bits . . . 7
Valid locked baud rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Eliminate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Defer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
DV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
FIFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
NOFIFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
NOPOST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
R, Set Receive Buffer Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
T, Set Transmit Buffer Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
VP or Master Interrupt Enable . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Mapping port assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Un-installing X00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Multi-Tasking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
THE BIOS INT 14h EMULATOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
IRQ SHARING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Appendix A, Hardware Port and IRQ Assignments . . . . . . . 17
Addresses and IRQs for COM1 and COM2 . . . . . . . . . 17
Defacto standard for COM3 and COM4 . . . . . . . . . . 17
Addresses and IRQ for COM3 through COM8 on the PS/2 . 17
Appendix B, SIO Chips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8250 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8250A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
iii
16450 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
16C451 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
16550 Non A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
16550A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
16550AF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
16550AFN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
16550s Made by Western Digital . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
16C551 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
16C552 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
82510 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Appendix C, Multi-Port Serial I/0 Cards . . . . . . . . . . 21
Connect-Com 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4 and 8 Port Boards from Decision-Computer . . . . . . 21
Stargate Plus 8 board from Software Link . . . . . . . 22
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1
WHAT IS X00
X00 is a Serial Input/Output (SIO) communications driver. It
provides an interface between an application program and the
serial communications hardware.
X00 was originally designed as a FOSSIL driver. FOSSIL is an
acronym containing the first character of several communications
programs. The FOSSIL specification is basically an extension of
the PC's BIOS services for serial communications.
Except as noted in the Programmers Manual, X00 meets the FOSSIL
level 5 specification. X00 provides additional functions that
are not contained in the FOSSIL level 5 specification.
X00 only works with 8250 (TYPE) serial I/O devices. Such devices
include the 8250A, 16450, 16550, 16550A and the 82510. If you
have a PC that is an IBM or near compatible which has a serial
communication port, it is likely that it contains one of these
devices. XU, a utility distributed with X00, will identify the
existence of compatible SIO devices.
Like other Device Drivers, X00 will do very little standing
alone. There must be an application(s) program to use X00 before
you will gain benefit.
Since the introduction of the FOSSILs, a great number of new
communications programs have come into existence. I like to
think that the FOSSILs are l