Hello,
We are developing an energy industry product that makes use of a WinXP embedded PC (ETX) plugged into a carrier board that contains various hardware peripherals, including 8 serial ports (RS232, RS485, and RS422) that are connected to the ISA bus. They are not PnP. They are at fixed bus addresses. The IRQs are dealt with in an 8-bit interrupt status register, which itself is tied to the PC's IRQ6 line. The UARTs are 16550 compatible.
We'd like to be able to utilize these ports from within our applications that run under Windows. From what I have been able to find, it seems that the built-in Windows serial.sys driver should be able to control these ports, including making use of the interrupt status register.
I'm thinking what I need is an INF file that will configure Windows on the specifics and get these ports installed as hardware devices. And that's where I need help. So, can anyone provide information (perhaps examples!) or suggest some other approach I should be taking?
I will also mention that we are willing to pay for the development of the INF file and/or any other mechanism that will allow us to utilize these ports, if that is permissible under the policies of this forum.