Description
COMM-DRV/Dos
COMM-DRV/Dos is a robust and reliable serial communication product for MS-DOS, Embedded DOS, and Extended DOS. Any tool, utility, or computer language that has the ability to open, read, write, and close files can perform serial communication with this tool. Applications written with tools like Watcom DOS4GW 32 bit extender, Phar Lap extenders, Magic, QBasic, QuickBasic, VBDOS, Foxpro, Advanced Revelation, C/C++, Pascal, Fortran, Cobol can use it for all its serial communication services.
COMM-DRV/Dos is a fully tested product with thousands of hours of continuous bug free operation. It is currently used as the serial I/O backbone for several transaction processing, SCADA, billing, banking, terminal emulation, bulletin board, fax, satellite, factory floor, submarine, space, multi-user, and several other applications. It was designed to be extremely easy to use. It may be used in applications ranging from the very simple to the very complex. It will not interfere with other serial drivers, DLLs, or TSRs that follow standard Windows and MS-DOS conventions.
COMM-DRV/Dos allows the sharing of individual IRQs on the PC. Several serial ports can be connected to the same IRQ. IRQ00 through IRQ15 are supported. Any port address can be assigned to any COM device. Any COM device can be renamed. Each port supports adjustable communication buffers of up to 128k bytes. DTR/RTS/DSR/CTS hardware protocol is supported on both reception and transmission as well as XON/XOFF software protocol.
COMM-DRV/Dos operate at speeds in excess of 460.2K baud on cards that allow it. It supports most non-intelligent multiport serial cards that have the 8250, 16450, 16550, 16650, or compatible serial chip as well as many intelligent multiport cards. It supports both ISA and PCI cards.
COMM-DRV/Dos may be used with any MSDOS multitasker. It can be integrated with ourCOMM-DRV/VxD product to work with Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows 98. It can be integrated with our COMM-DRV/NT product to work with Windows NT and Windows 2000.
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What Exactly is COMM-DRV/Dos?
COMM-DRV/Dos is a group of serial communication utilities that work together to provide a complete MSDOS solution to serial communications. It includes
A high performance TSR (commtsr.exe) that allows any application that can issue INT14 calls and DAM calls the ability to perform serial communication. All the utilities shipped withCOMM-DRV/Dos use this TSR.
A device driver (commdrv.drv) that allows any application or program the ability to write to the serial port if it can open, read, & write to a standard file. This include programs like Magic,
A file transfer utility (cdrvxf.exe) that supports the ZModem, XModem, and YModem protocols.
A simple BBS type utility (xfer.exe) for sending and receiving files between computers.
A keyboard utility (cdrvkeyb.exe) that stuffs data inputted from the serial port to the keyboard buffer.
A simple multi-terminal utility (cdrvmtrm.exe) that allows viewing/sending simple ASCII data over several serial ports concurrently.
A serial port monitor/ANSI terminal program (commdrv.exe) that can be used to display serial port statistics as well as view data received.
TSR Utility
The utility commtsr.exe is the TSR communication engine that talks directly to the communication ports. Virtually any number of serial ports can be configured to send/receive data concurrently. Moreover, it will allow mixing any number of supported multiport and single port serial cards including the standard COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, and many intelligent and non-intelligent multiport cards. Languages/tools like Watcom DOS4GW, QuickBasic, C/C++ and any language can use this TSR directly. It supports both the multidrop and nine bit protocols. As mentioned above, all the utilities above get their serial communication services from this TSR.
Example QBasic Program
| ‘ ****************************************** ‘ *Description- *’* A simple example QBasic Program that *’* reads and write to the serial port as * ‘ * if it were a file. The program * |
The utility commdrv.drv is the device driver that allows the serial port to look like a standard MSDOS file. This driver maps a name to a port that was configured when the TSR commtsr.exewas installed. The developer can then open the file with said name to read and write to the serial port like any standard file as in the example above.
Serial Port Monitor
The utility commdrv.exe is used 1) to change the settings of any port(e.g., baud rate, parity, etc.), 2) as a simple terminal emulator that is a ANSI compliant terminal when used in conjunction with the MS-DOS driver ANSI.SYS , 3) as a serial port monitor that displays the statistics like byte counts, error counts, as well as the display of data in hex form, etc.
ZModem/XModem/YModem File Transfer Utility
The utility cdrvxf.exe is the file transfer engine. It can be used from the command line to send or receive a file from the serial port. It may also be executed from any tool, application, or language that has the ability to run or spawn other executable programs(e.g., QuickBasic, Magic, BBS programs, etc.). The file transfers currently supported are ZModem, XModem, & YModem in their various flavors.
Simple BBS
The utility xfer.exe is a simple BBS type tool/utility. It has two modes of operation, master and slave. The slave computer with a modem runs this tool in slave mode to allow the upload or download of files. The master computer runs this tool in master mode either from the command line or executed from any tool or application that has the ability to run or spawn other executable programs to send and/or receive files to/from the PC running it in slave mode.
The utility cdrvkeyb.exe is a simple keyboard buffer stuffer. Any data received from the specified serial port will be placed in the keyboard buffer. In effect, this allows both the serial port and the keyboard to control the computer.
Multi-terminal Utility
The utility cdrvmtrm.exe is a simple multi-terminal utility. It will display information coming in on several serial ports concurrently. You may type from each of the terminal windows.
The COMM-DRV/Dos utility commtsr.exe provides many more features in addition to what was mentioned above. It provides the FOSSIL interface, an interface used by many 3rd party MSDOS applications that uses the serial ports including BBSes like Opus, Fidonet BBSes, and PCBoard . It provides the INT14H interface used by some versions of PC Anywhere, some versions of Procommâ, Telix, and a multitude of third party applications. It will run perfectly under MSDOS multitaskers like Desqviewâ, Taskview, Omniview, DoubleDos, and VM386. It will also work under Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT(with 16×50 UARTs only).
Supported Hardware:
Willies Computer Software Co(WCSC)
All non-intelligent cards supported
COM1–COM4
The following intelligent multiport cards are currently supported.
Arnet
Smartport, Smartport Plus
Digiboard
PC/Xe, PC/Xi, PC/Xm, 2Port
GTEK
PCSS-8FA, & PCSS-8FX
The following non-intelligent multiport serial cards are supported. Note that many more unnamed multiport cards with the 16×50 UARTs are supported as well.
Arnet
All known non-intelligent cards supported.
AST
4 Port Intelligent.
Cyclades
CyclomY
Boca Research
All known non-intelligent cards supported.
Digiboard
All known non-intelligent cards supported.
Connect Tech
Dflex, Blue Heat
Technical Specifications:
- Supports baud rates up to 460 KBaud. This baud rate is sustainable on several ports concurrently with the 8250/16450/16550/16650 family of UARTs.
- Support standard and non-standard baud rates to 460 KBaud.
- Supports transparent XON/XOFF & hardware (RTS/CTS, DTR/DSR) flow control.
- Supports virtually any number of serial ports running at the same time.
- Supports COM1-COM4 and virtually any manufacturer’s 8250/16450/16550/16650 based multiport cards. Different vendor’s multiport cards can be in the same machine and running at the same time.
- Transmit & receive buffers are adjustable up to 128K per port.
- Autodetects 16550 and 16650 and uses it in high speed mode.
- Support for PCI cards/Plug & Play.
- Allows sharing IRQs on supporting hardware.
