PC card UART bridge boosts serial connectivity options

To its 16-bit PC Card UART bridge chip, Oxford Semiconductor has added an embedded compatibility mode that allows generic device drivers to access the 15Mbps asynchronous UART and a Local Bus interface.

The OXCF950B's embedded compatibility mode provides designers of Compact Flash and PCMCIA add-in cards with instant compatibility with a wide range of mobile computing devices. Generic driver support also removes the need for external circuitry for address range adjustment.

By incorporating a bridge to an 8-bit Local Bus the OXCF950B allows PC Card designers to expand the capability of their products through the addition of peripherals to the bus. Using indirect addressing, Local Bus mode is pin selected and supports PCMCIA and complex embedded applications.

For add-in card circuits requiring more room, an ultra-small 48 ball BGA version of the OXCF950B has also been introduced as an alternative to the TQFP packaged device.

To better support low voltage battery-backed product development, the operating input voltage range of the new part has been extended from 2.7 to 3.6V. A choice of power-down modes has been added to help minimise power consumption.

Assisting add-in card manufacturers in the differentiation of product designs, the OXCF950B's Microwire programmed EEPROM enables modification of attribute memory, UART and Local Bus configuration registers during power-up or hard/soft reset.

To help reduce product development time the OXCF950B is pin and software compatible with the previous OXCF950 and industry standard 16C550 devices.