The Fastcom: SuperFSCC/4-PCIe adapter is the one of the most advanced synchronous communications adapters in the industry. The Fastcom: SuperFSCC/4-PCIe supports data rates up to 50 Mbit/s1. The Fastcom: SuperFSCC/4-PCIe is a four channel adapter, with each one being individually configurable to use HDLC/SDLC, ASYNC (using FC950 UARTS), or Fastcom®: X-Sync protocols. Although similar to the SuperFastcom and ESCC families of adapters, the SuperFSCC/4-PCIe expands on our previous adapters. The most notable expansion is the longevity of the components of the board. Faced with the inevitability of obsolescence, Commtech decided to put an end to the lifespan problems that plague most computing customers. We designed a serial communications controller with our customers’ needs in mind, and built a card around it. Wholly designed and owned by Commtech, Inc, this FPGA based SCC has most of the features that you are used to seeing in a quality Fastcom product. It also includes a few new features that come directly from customer requests. If the existing FPGA technology is ever discontinued by the chip manufacturer, the design can simply be re-targeted to the next generation of FPGA chip with no impact on compatibility.
Difference Between Fastcom: FSCC and Fastcom: SuperFSCC
The SuperFSCC card features bus-mastering DMA; therefore, it greatly decreases the amount of interrupts that must be serviced by the host CPU, thus freeing it up for other activities. By utilizing this DMA, the SuperFSCC is able to stream gapless, full duplex data at the full 50 Mbits/s1. The standard FSCC card is only able to perform the same task at around 20 Mbits/s. The standard card is capable of operating at rates up to 50 Mbits/s with data bursts. It cannot sustain higher rates without generating gaps in the data (e.g. idle between frames).
1This is possible as long as the operating parameters are within reason. For instance, you cannot expect to perform continuous, full duplex operation at 50 Mbit/s with 2 byte frames. This will require reasonable sized frames with a minimum size of around 1024 bytes. If you have any question about whether the card can meet your needs, please contact Technical Support.
