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Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 08:59:26 CDT
From: Douglas W. Jones <jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu>
Message-Id: <9310071359.AA09499@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu>
To: rmsmith@opus.starlab.csc.com
Subject: Re:  M8655
Status: OR

Technical notes for the M8655 KL8-JA OMNIBUS asynchronous interface board

by Douglas Jones
jones@cs.uiowa.edu

The M8655 board supports asynchronous communications at a variety of
baud rates, with either an RS232 or a current loop interface.  The board
uses a UART chip, but most of the options that might be programmable in a
more modern system are selected by jumpers on the board.

In most respects, the M8655 board and the M8650 board are interchangable,
but the M8655 can generate and detect parity, and it can support data
widths from 5 to 8 bits, while the M8650 can support higher nonstandard
baud rates and is thus more appropriate for high speed PDP-8 to PDP-8
links.  There's also no way to send a break on an M8655, while this can
be sent on an M8650 by jamming data into the transmit buffer while it is
transmitting.

General geography of the M8655 boar