PES2Card - USB

Announcement May 25, 2001.

As all of you know, PES2Card is about USERS. Since the original development of PES2Card we have had various new feature requests asking for a USB interface to the computer instead of the RS232 interface. Unfortunately we couldn't do any better than advising customers to buy a USB to serial converter. The PES2Card utility has been adapted to overcome the technical problems with such a converter (primarily buffering limitations in the converter). This didn't mean however that we stopped looking at the possibility to integrate such a converter in PES2Card.

We are now pleased to announce the immediate availability of a PES2Card model with integrated USB interface.

This announcement is good news for PC users who have a lack of serial ports or no serial ports at all. Some new computers are delivered without any serial port. It is also good news for Macintosh user who also had a lack of serial ports. The USB model of PES2Card is tested on a couple of MAC configurations running Virtual PC.

Details:
The USB interface in the USB PES2Card model is based on the FT8U232AM as produced by FTDI.
The drivers for the USB device will be delivered with the PES2Card utility.
Alternatively, you can download the drivers from the FTDI website (www.ftdichip.com).
The USB model of PES2Card requires the Virtual Com Port drivers.

The inbuilt USB interface will improve the card read and write speed with approximately a factor three.