RS-232C
)Short for recommended standard-232C, a standard interface approved by the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) for connecting serial devices. In 1987, the EIA released a new version of the standard and changed the name to EIA-232-D. And in 1991, the EIA teamed up with Telecommunications Industry association (TIA) and issued a new version of the standard called EIA/TIA-232-E. Many people, however, still refer to the standard as RS-232C, or just RS-232.
Almost all modems conform to the EIA-232 standard and most personal computers have an EIA-232 port for connecting a modem or other device. In addition to modems, many display screens, mice, and serial printers are designed to connect to a EIA-232 port. In EIA-232 parlance, the device that connects to the interface is called a Data Communications Equipment (DCE) and the device to which it connects (e.g., the computer) is called a Data Terminal Equipment (DTE).
The EIA-232 standard supports two types of connectors — a 25-pin D-type connector (DB-25) and a 9-pin D-type connector (DB-9). The type of serial communications used by PCsrequires only 9 pins so either type of connector will work equally well.
Although EIA-232 is still the most common standard for serial communication, the EIA has recently defined successors to EIA-232 called RS-422 and RS-423. The new standards are backward compatible so that RS-232 devices can connect to an RS-422 port.
Read Also:
- backward compatible
Compatible with earlier models or versions of the same product. A new version of a program is said to be backward compatible if it can use files and data created with an older version of the same program. A computer is said to be backward compatible if it can run the same software as the […]
- RS-422 and RS-423
Standard interfaces approved by the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) for connecting serial devices. The RS-422 and RS-423 standards are designed to replace the older RS-232 standard because they support higher data rates and greater immunity to electrical interference. All Apple Macintosh computers contain an RS-422 port that can also be used for RS-232C communication. RS-422 […]
- RS-485
An Electronics Industry Alliance (EIA) standard for multipoint communications. It supports several types of connectors, including DB-9 and DB-37. RS-485 is similar to RS-422 but can support more nodes per line because it uses lower-impedance drivers and receivers.
- RS-PC
Short for Reed-Solomon Product Code. RS-PC is an error-correction system for encoding data for DVDs. It uses Reed-Solomon encoding to increase the effectiveness of error-correction.
- Release To Manufacturing (RTM)
Short for release to manufacturing, the version of a software product that is given to manufacturers to bundle into future versions of their hardware products. RTM versions are typically released to manufacturers before they are released to the general public so that the manufacturers can work out any bugs the software may encounter with hardware […]