Asynchronous Serial Device Driver for OS/2 For use with OS/2 2.11 or later for PCI, ISA, PCMCIA, and Micro Channel computers User's Manual QUATECH, INC. 5675 Hudson Industrial Parkway Hudson, Ohio 44236 TEL: (330) 655-9000 FAX: (330) 655-9010 http://www.quatech.
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Supported Serial Port Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ó 1993-2001 Quatech, Inc. NOTICE The information contained in this document cannot be reproduced in any form without the written consent of Quatech, Inc. Likewise, any software programs that might accompany this document can be used only in accordance with any license agreement(s) between the purchaser and Quatech, Inc. Quatech, Inc. reserves the right to change this documentation or the product to which it refers at any time and without notice.
1 Introduction The Quatech Asynchronous Serial Device Driver Set for OS/2 is a software package which enhances the serial communications capabilities of personal computers using the IBM OS/2 operating system, version 2.11 or higher. 1.
1.2 Supported Serial Port Adapters { All Quatech serial adapters { Standard (legacy) single serial port hardware such as built-in motherboard ports. { Multiport serial adapters from manufacturers other than Quatech are not supported. Performance is enhanced by the interrupt status register found on Quatech PCI and PCMCIA serial adapters and on most Quatech multiport serial adapters for ISA and Micro Channel (MCA) bus computers.
2 Installation This device driver set is designed to be a direct replacement for software modules supplied by IBM in the OS/2 product. Installation is simple, and changes needed in other portions of a currently working system are minimal. A system backup is suggested before installation. If "Serial Device Support" was not selected during OS/2 installation or a subsequent Selective Install, the IBM drivers may not be present on the hard drive. This will not affect installation of the Quatech drivers. 2.
Will other serial ports made by manufacturers other than Quatech be used? Quatech's device drivers will operate any serial port that appears to be a standard (legacy) serial port. For these ports, record the port's base address and IRQ. Quatech's device drivers will not operate third-party multiport serial adapters. 2.2 Install the Files and Add Configurations 1. Copy QCOM.SYS from the installation disk to the \OS2 directory on the boot partition. Copy QVCOM.
2.3.
port Starting port number, 1 or 2 decimal digits The first port on the adapter. The other ports on the adapter follow in contiguous sequence. For example, to install a Quatech QS-100 four-port adapter for COM9 through COM12, use "9" or "09". io Base I/O address, 3 or 4 hex digits The base I/O address of the starting port. The value must match the adapter's address DIP switch settings. The other ports on the adapter reside at increments of eight bytes in contiguous I/O space following the first port.
2.3.3 Quatech intelligent "Q-suffix" series products Parameter format: (id,mem,port,io,irq) id Quatech adapter ID "ESI" for Quatech ESI-xxxQ intelligent 8-port adapter Any other value will cause an installation error. mem Memory window address, five hex digits The hexadecimal base address of the memory window used by the adapter. This value must match the adapter's address DIP switch settings. port Starting port number, 1 or 2 decimal digits The first port on the adapter.
2.3.4 Quatech PCMCIA Serial Port Adapters Do not place parameters on the QCOM.SYS command line for these products. The client device drivers take parameters for PCMCIA serial ports. See the client driver documentation for details. 2.3.5 Third-party PCMCIA Cards Single-port serial cards and client drivers from other manufacturers may be supported if their client drivers are written to communicate with IBM's standard COM.SYS serial port device driver. The QCOM.
2.3.6 All other serial ports (including Quatech "DS" two-port adapters) Parameter format: (port,io,irq,flags) port Port number, 1 or 2 decimal digits The port number. For example, to install a COM9, use "9" or "09". io Base I/O address, 3 or 4 hex digits The base I/O address for the serial port. For example, to install an internal modem at 3e8 hex, use "3e8" or "03e8". This value must match the adapter's address settings (using DIP switches on Quatech products).
2.4 QVCOM.SYS Parameters (Address/IRQ Masquerading) The QVCOM.SYS device driver virtualizes the base address and interrupt level (IRQ) for serial ports accessed in a DOS or Windows session. In cases where DOS or Windows software cannot properly handle the actual hardware settings, the virtual driver can pretend that the serial port is installed using other values. This is called "Address/IRQ Masquerading.
2.5 Optional Features The device driver supports some optional features. These features are enabled by adding an option switch to the QCOM.SYS command line. The option switch may be placed anywhere on the line outside of parameter groups in parentheses, and it affects all serial ports. Example: DEVICE=d:\os2\qcom.sys (QSC-100,4) /L /B /D /FT 2.5.1 Installed port listing ("/L") This option causes the QCOM.SYS device driver to print a list of the serial ports it has installed during boot time.
2.5.4 Fast RTS Toggle-On-Transmit ("/FT") The /FT option causes the QCOM.SYS device driver to aggressively process the RTS toggle-on-transmit protocol used in two-wire half-duplex environments. RTS will be deasserted approximately one bit-time following the end of transmitted data. Without this option, the driver may take up to 32 milliseconds to deassert RTS. 2.6 Overall Configuration Example DEVICE=D:\OS2\QCOM.
3 Using The Driver The drivers can service up to 32 serial ports. The names of these ports range from "COM1" to "COM32". 3.1 OS/2 Application Software An OS/2 application can access any installed serial port from COM1 through COM32 by specifying the "COMxx" name. 3.2 WIN-OS/2 Application Software The Windows environment must be informed of the serial port configuration via the "Ports" icon in the Windows Control Panel.
QVCOM.SYS provides most of the same DOS settings as IBM's VCOM.SYS. For full details on these settings, consult the OS/2 documentation or online help. Differences between the Quatech and IBM drivers are discussed here. It is suggested that these DOS settings be left at their default values unless necessary.
3.4.2 PCMCIA bus Quatech multiport PCMCIA serial port cards will share a single interrupt between all ports on the card. Interrupt sharing between multiple PCMCIA cards is governed by the PCMCIA subsystem, and is not supported by this device driver. 3.4.3 ISA bus ISA (AT) bus computers do not support the sharing of hardware interrupts. The nature of this bus is such that interrupts are easily lost if sharing is attempted.
16550 UARTs or 921,600 bps for 16750 UARTs. Software may set these baud rates directly by using the appropriate OS/2 function calls (IOCTl functions 0x43 and 0x63 for baud rates higher than 57,600). If a rate selector jumper is applied, the device driver will accept only baud rates up to 115,200 bps. The hardware will multiply the baud rate in accordance with the jumper setting without the device driver's knowledge.
Block mode addressing must be used in order to specify an "id" parameter in the QCOM.SYS configuration line. 3.8.2 Discrete Addressing In this mode, each serial port on the adapter is addressed discretely from the other ports. The interrupt status register is not used. Each port is installed as a SERIALx port as defined by the IBM Micro Channel architecture. IBM Micro Channel computers typically support serial ports addressed in this fashion as "SERIAL1" through "SERIAL8".
3.9 Limitations 1. Performance is dependent on the computer system in which the software is used. In general, more powerful systems and systems with lighter process loads can accommodate the highest cumulative data throughput. 2. DMA serial ports are used only as standard interrupt-driven ports. 3. The OS/2 and DOS session MODE commands are not capable of working with ports COM10 through COM32. 4.
4 Troubleshooting Listed below are some tips that can be consulted in the event of difficulties. Consulting this information may make calling for technical support unnecessary. { Ensure that the Interrupt Status Register on a Quatech serial adapter is enabled. All products ship from our factory with this register enabled. This is done using a jumper or switch on ISA or PCI adapters.
Asynchronous Serial Device Driver for OS/2 User's Manual Revision 3.
