Two new products from Pacific CommWare and Lava Computer break that barrier and provide faster connections for 56K modems and external ISDN adapters. The 115,200-bps speed limit has been with us since the very first PCs. The 8250, and the 16450 and 16550 parts that have since replaced it, each operate at a maximum speed of 115,200 bps. 920 Pacific CommWare's TurboExpress Port 920 is a 16-bit plug and play ISA board. The Port 920 was effortless to install, and the provided driver and utility software is innovative, useful, and rock-solid.
Installation is typical plug and play and takes about five minutes.
The Port 920 configured itself to use the one free IRQ line on each of our test PCs. The TurboCom driver looks and operates like the standard Windows driver but adds several important enhancements. Most obvious of these is support for the additional, higher serial-port speeds. Many modern-day PCs are severely short on available IRQ lines. We used the Port 920 to connect a variety of modems and ISDN terminal adapters, and the Port 920 worked fine with all of them.