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PCI/ISA printer port

T

TTman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Is is possible to use PCI bus signals to make an ISA printer port???
 
R

Rich Webb

Jan 1, 1970
0
Is is possible to use PCI bus signals to make an ISA printer port???

I'd go with "No," as there is no "ISA printer port" as such. ISA and PCI
define an internal system bus; the parallel printer port that's been
with us from the early IBM PC days is a separate interface. That said,
PCI expansion cards that host parallel printer ports are widely
available. http://www.web-tronics.com/pcipaprpop.html for example.

Driving a parallel port *directly* from the PCI bus isn't possible;
different signaling and I/O standards. Add enough glue and level
shifters to do the trick and the result is pretty much the interface
card above...
 
I

IanM

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rich said:
I'd go with "No," as there is no "ISA printer port" as such. ISA and PCI
define an internal system bus; the parallel printer port that's been
with us from the early IBM PC days is a separate interface. That said,
PCI expansion cards that host parallel printer ports are widely
available. http://www.web-tronics.com/pcipaprpop.html for example.

Driving a parallel port *directly* from the PCI bus isn't possible;
different signaling and I/O standards. Add enough glue and level
shifters to do the trick and the result is pretty much the interface
card above...
Additional NO as on a machine with a pre-existing PCI to ISA bridge,
you almost certainly will find that the classic ISA printer port
addresses 278h, 378h and 3BCh are already reserved by the bridge. If it
has any legacy ports (e.g. PS2 keyboard/mouse, serial or printer) it
probably has such a bridge even without any ISA slots.

You can put a PCI card in for an electrically compatible printer port,
but it wont be software compatible. At best, you'll have to use a
different IRQ and base address.
 
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