[ale] USB to Serial adapters

[Ken Cochran]

Thanks to all for your helpful & informative replies.  Below are
a couple of examples that roughly summarize.

It appears to me that there are 2 major USB-to-serial
support/bridge chips on "modern" hardware, the Prolific PL-2303
and the FTDI.  Both appear to be well-supported on Linux, *BSD,
MacOSX (with appropriate 3rd-party OSX drivers), and of course,
Windows (Vista notwithstanding).

Any word on the relative strengths/weaknesses/features of
those respective chips(ets)?

Thanks,

-kc

James Sumners wrote:

>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:33:21 -0400
>From: "James Sumners" <james.sumners at gmail.com>
>To: ale at ale.org
>Subject: Re: [ale] USB to Serial adapters
>
>I use this cable --
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812107108
>
>For OS X, you have to use the driver found at
>http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31 . The main chip in
>the cable is the pl2303. I imagine it is supported out-of-the-box in
>Linux.
>
>On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 10:13 AM, Ken Cochran <kwc at theworld.com> wrote:
>> Any recommendations (maybe a FAQ/site/info) for *supported*
>> and/or recommended USB-to-serial adapters for Linux/BSD/MacOSX?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> -kc
>
>--
>James Sumners
>http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

Mike Warfield wrote:

>From: "Michael H. Warfield" <mhw at wittsend.com>
>To: ale at ale.org
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:48:16 -0400
>Subject: Re: [ale] USB to Serial adapters
>
>On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 10:13 -0400, Ken Cochran wrote:
>> Any recommendations (maybe a FAQ/site/info) for *supported*
>> and/or recommended USB-to-serial adapters for Linux/BSD/MacOSX?
>
>Funny you should ask that.  I just ordered one from usbgear and it just
>arrived and I've been just testing it out.  An 8 port serial to USB
>adapter and it looks great.  Plugged it into my Linux box and
>ttyUSB[0-7] showed up.  I haven't had a chance to put it into production
>yet (waiting on some additional components) so I can't vouch for it's
>reliability but all 8 ports are suppose to be good to 921KBaud.
>
>http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cable_details.cfm?sku=3D8XDB9-USB&cats=3D19=
>9&catid=3D199%2C478%2C474
>
>They've also got 4 port, 2 port, and single port adapters.  Most of
>them mention that they have Linux compatible chip sets.  Anything with
>the FTDI chipset should be good to go.
>
>This 4 port cable based model uses the Prolific chipset and is Linux
>compatible as well (little Tux logo right on the page):
>
>http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cable_details.cfm?sku=3DUSBG-4X232&cats=3D1=
>99&catid=3D199%2C469