Comtrol Rocketport

Comtrol Rocketport ... only a single PC slot - and no IRQs. The Comtrol RocketPort family of multiport cards makes serial connectivity more powerful, reliable, easier to use, and more cost effective than any other controller available today. RocketPort performance capabilities make it ideal for peripheral control applications such as data acquisition, point-of-sale, and factory floor automation, as well as remote network access and Internet access.

The heart of the RocketPort card is Comtrol's exclusive AIOPIC chip, a 36Mhz ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) that enables the RocketPort to transmit and receive data at rates far higher than multiport cards based on conventional 16550 UART technology - up to 921 Kbps full duplex across all ports simultaneously. Along with improved throughput speed and reduced load on the host system CPU, the AIOPIC chip also adds an important benefit: increased reliability, with the highest level of integration and longest mean time between failures of any multiport serial card currently on the market.

RocketPort performance is driven by specially designed AOPIC ASICs that optimize I/O functionality. RocketPort is the only controller that dedicates one 36 MHz processor to every eight ports to maximize throughput at each port for a consistent application of power - from 4 to 128 ports. RocketPort's uniquely designed ASICs replace virtually all major hardware components, including the processor and bus interface logic. ASIC integration reduces the number of components by 80%, resulting in fewer chances for failure. In addition, RocketPort implements key communications software functions, such as flow control and line disciplines, in the ASIC firmware to help boost I/O processing speed. The RocketPort ASICs are focused on preserving absolute data integrity and moving it at maximum speed, while keeping CPU utilization to a minimum. RocketPort has the industry's largest transmit-and-receive FIFOs to optimize data transfer. With smaller buffers, a card must stop each time the buffer fills and wait for the data to clear. This continual starting and stopping increases the load on the host CPU and reduces overall performance. RocketPort uses transmit FIFOs 16 times larger, and receive FIFOs 64 times larger, than multiport cards designed with 16550 UARTs (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitters). This helps eliminate bottlenecks at the serial controller level while conserving CPU resources.