| When I wrote the first edition of this book, the RS-232 serial port was the workhorse of PC interfaces. Modems and scores of other peripherals connected to PCs via the serial ports that were present on every machine.
When the Universal Serial Bus (USB) took hold in the late 1990s, many predicted that serial ports would soon be obsolete. Plenty of peripherals that formerly used the serial port have switched to USB. But some devices can’t use USB or have requirements that USB alone can’t provide. Many embedded systems use serial ports because they’re inexpensive and less complex to program compared to USB. Serial ports can use longer cables than USB allows. And the RS-485 serial interface supports networks suitable for many monitoring and control applications.
While most PCs no longer have built-in serial (COM) ports, the ports are easy to add via USB converters. With converters, the number of expansion slots no longer limits the number of serial ports a system can have. The SerialPort class included in Microsoft’s .NET Framework shows that PC applications continue to find COM-port communications useful. |
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After Democracy: Imagining Our Political Future
Democracy has long been considered an ideal state of governance.
What if it’s not? Perhaps it is not the end goal but, rather, the
transition stage to something better. We have lent our cheer and
support and sacrificed lives for revolutions meant to place democracy
where it does not exist. But change is gradual. Revolutions... | | Cyber Conflict: Competing National Perspectives
Today, cyber security, cyber defense, information warfare and cyber warfare issues are among the most relevant topics both at the national and international level. All the major states of the world are facing cyber threats and trying to understand how... | | Freud and His Critics
Wars against Freud have been waged along virtually every front during the past decade. Now Paul Robinson takes on three of Freud's most formidable critics, mounting a thoughtful, witty, and ultimately devastating critique of the historian of science Frank Sulloway, the psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, and the philosopher Adolf ... |
Mastering AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011
Go beyond AutoCAD essentials to create amazing 2D and 3D technical drawings
AutoCADis the leading drawing software used by design and drafting professionals to create 2D and 3D technical drawings. Mastering AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT guides you through AutoCAD essentials using concise explanations, focused examples, step-by-step... | | CCIE: Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Study GuideThis book is intended to help you continue on your exciting path toward obtaining your CCIE certification. Before reading this book, it is important to have at least read the Sybex CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide, as well as the Sybex CCNP: Routing Study Guide, CCNP: Support Study Guide, CCNP: Switching... | | Mastering AspectJ: Aspect-Oriented Programming in JavaWrite cleaner, easier-to-maintain applications with this code-intensive approach to using AspectJ
Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) promises to increase the power of OO applications by modularizing functionality that cuts across classes (such as logging, transaction management, design patterns, and security). If your application has this type... |
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