Anyone know any current models, besides these, that still have serial and/parallel ports? Serial/Parallel 1. Fujitsu Lifebook E8110 Drawbacks: No 1394, UMA graphics Serial 1. Dell D620 2. Dell D820 3. Dell D520 Drawbacks: UMA graphics 4. HP Compaq nc8430 Drawbacks: No IrDA
Notebooks that still have legacy ports
Started by ●January 29, 2007
Reply by ●January 29, 20072007-01-29
On Jan 29, 4:08 pm, SMS <scharf.ste...@geemail.com> wrote:> Anyone know any current models, besides these, that still have serial > and/parallel ports?I've more or less given up on this. I'm investing in USB-connected debugging hardware for everything on which I need to continue working. I have archived two complete laptops (HP ZE4805US) with native serial/ parallel ports in case I need to do something with an old dev system. Thus far I've migrated AVR, MSP430, NEC 78K0 over to USB: I'm just deciding which ARM hardware to buy.
Reply by ●January 29, 20072007-01-29
larwe wrote:> > On Jan 29, 4:08 pm, SMS <scharf.ste...@geemail.com> wrote: > >>Anyone know any current models, besides these, that still have serial >>and/parallel ports? > > > I've more or less given up on this. I'm investing in USB-connected > debugging hardware for everything on which I need to continue working. > I have archived two complete laptops (HP ZE4805US) with native serial/ > parallel ports in case I need to do something with an old dev system. > > Thus far I've migrated AVR, MSP430, NEC 78K0 over to USB: I'm just > deciding which ARM hardware to buy.I agree, and saw it coming about 5 years ago. It's like trying to hang onto DOS applications and hardware. If new designs ignore USB for PC comms, then they are heading in the wrong direction. Next it will be no RS-232 or parallel ports on PC motherboards. How many new peripheral designs use serial or parallel these days? It is all USB. Some new designs retain a legacy RS-232 port, but I can't see this continuing for any real length of time. Don... -- Don McKenzie E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller. Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes. http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16460
Reply by ●January 29, 20072007-01-29
SMS wrote:> Anyone know any current models, besides these, that still have serial > and/parallel ports? > > > Serial/Parallel > > 1. Fujitsu Lifebook E8110 Drawbacks: No 1394, UMA graphics > > Serial > > 1. Dell D620 > 2. Dell D820 > 3. Dell D520 Drawbacks: UMA graphics > 4. HP Compaq nc8430 Drawbacks: No IrDAI just bought a Twinhead Durabook D14RA. Although not mentioned in the ad it showed up with an RS232 port. No parallel port though. As Lewin and Don pointed out it may well be that USB is the future (for now) but there is lots of industrial gear that has a lifetime of several decades. IOW about an order of magnitude longer than PCs and laptops. I guess that was the reason they threw in an RS232 because this laptop is ruggedized and for field use. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply by ●January 30, 20072007-01-30
SMS wrote:> Anyone know any current models, besides these, that still have serial > and/parallel ports?Well, gosh, if people continue to refer to them as "legacy" ports, the PC manufacturer's may not realize that they will continue to be important to some people! Even if the USB to serial port converters do not always work well, there are PCMCIA serial ports on all but the smallest laptops. This all kind of cracks me up, everyone worrying about connecting microcontrollers to PC's. The time connected to a PC should be small shouldn't it, as in during development? Aren't we designing standalone microcontroller based products that get a program upload from a PC and work off by themselves most of the time? Often using serial ports to talk to other industrial devices?
Reply by ●January 30, 20072007-01-30
On Jan 30, 5:48 pm, Gary Peek <mylastn...@mycompanyname.com> wrote:> Well, gosh, if people continue to refer to them as "legacy" ports, > the PC manufacturer's may not realize that they will continue to be > important to some people! > > This all kind of cracks me up, everyone worrying about connecting > microcontrollers to PC's. The time connected to a PC should be > small shouldn't it, as in during development?While you're developing, that connection is absolutely critical though :) Also, a micro that needs to transfer data or control information to/from a PC needs a similar connection.> Aren't we designing standalone microcontroller based products that > get a program upload from a PC and work off by themselves most of > the time? Often using serial ports to talk to other industrial > devices?You just fell into the same semantic trap of which you accused us above. "Industrial" PCs will continue to have RS232, RS485 et al for a long, long time - because they're a special market. They also cost x3 or more what a consumer PC will cost. Potayto, potahto.
Reply by ●January 30, 20072007-01-30
larwe wrote:> "Industrial" PCs will continue to have RS232, RS485 et al for a > long, long time - because they're a special market. They also cost x3 > or more what a consumer PC will cost.Well, now you got me goin' on another related topic. Sure, many microcontroller development programs are only available for the PC. But most of these "consumers" are actually just people using computers for entertainment, and not a lick of "work". They should just be getting Mac's! Wonder if _they_ still got serial ports. (Rhetorical, rhetorical, don't answer that.)
Reply by ●January 30, 20072007-01-30
larwe wrote:> On Jan 30, 5:48 pm, Gary Peek <mylastn...@mycompanyname.com> wrote: > > >>Well, gosh, if people continue to refer to them as "legacy" ports, >>the PC manufacturer's may not realize that they will continue to be >>important to some people! >> >>This all kind of cracks me up, everyone worrying about connecting >>microcontrollers to PC's. The time connected to a PC should be >>small shouldn't it, as in during development? > > > While you're developing, that connection is absolutely critical > though :) Also, a micro that needs to transfer data or control > information to/from a PC needs a similar connection. >Also, a lot of lab equipment, industrial control gear and other stuff has RS232 only. In those markets it is not customary to chuck everything after 5 years because that's considered too old. They use stuff for decades. Heck, even the old Dolch logic analyzer here in the lab is about 25 years old now. Works fine. Why buy a new one? And guess what it's port is?> >>Aren't we designing standalone microcontroller based products that >>get a program upload from a PC and work off by themselves most of >>the time? Often using serial ports to talk to other industrial >>devices? > > > You just fell into the same semantic trap of which you accused us > above. "Industrial" PCs will continue to have RS232, RS485 et al for a > long, long time - because they're a special market. They also cost x3 > or more what a consumer PC will cost. >Mine was only about 1.5x and has RS232 :-))) -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply by ●January 30, 20072007-01-30
On Jan 29, 3:08 pm, SMS <scharf.ste...@geemail.com> wrote:> Anyone know any current models, besides these, that still have serial > and/parallel ports?I wonder how long it will be before we hear that some frustrated engineer has gone and implemented himself an entire legacy PC on a large FPGA eval board in order to get the real parallel port(s) needed to run a legacy programmer or device...
Reply by ●January 30, 20072007-01-30
cs_posting@hotmail.com wrote:>SMS wrote: >> Anyone know any current models, besides these, that still have serial >> and/parallel ports? > >I wonder how long it will be before we hear that some frustrated >engineer has gone and implemented himself an entire legacy PC on a >large FPGA eval board in order to get the real parallel port(s) needed >to run a legacy programmer or device...I probably would buy one. It will be short lived also, as the evaluation board and the FPGA family on which it is based become obsolete ... Roberto Waltman [ Please reply to the group, return address is invalid ]
