On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 3:53 PM Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > From my naive point of view, I wonder if it would be possible to build > some sort of USB device that has a traditional UART that has supporting > circuitry to connect to the host over USB. -- I say this because it > sounds like many ~> most ~> all (?) USB to RS-232 converters are doing > something inferior. >
Of course that has been done in commercial products. For example I have some Inside Out Networks Edgeport / 4 devices (apparently later sold by Digi) that are implemented using a traditional ST16C654 quad UART and MAX3243E RS-232 transceivers, with an Intel 80930 microcontroller as the interface between the UART and the USB host. The Intel 80930 has an 80251 core integrated with a USB interface, and was one of the first microcontrollers available on the market. This device dates from 1997, so reasonably early in the USB game.
