Serial Cables and Converters

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This section contains cable pinout information for serial cables that you can connect to your OCTANE workstation. It also describes Silicon Graphics' serial port converters.

• PC Modem Serial Cable
  
  Table 2 - Cable Pinout Assignments for a PC Modem Cable
  
  
• Serial Port Converter Cables
  
  Table 3 - Female DB9 to Female MiniDIN8 Converter Cable
  
  Table 4 - Female DB9 to Female DB9 Converter Cable

Printer/Dumb Terminal Serial Cable

For serial printers and dumb terminals, use a 3-wired standard PC cable. See Table 1.

Note: For a 3-wire cable and no hardware flow control modem, you must use the /dev/ttyd* command devices in the configuration files. For more detailed information, see the serial man page. To access the man page, from the Toolchest choose Help > InfoSearch and select "Man pages." Or place the cursor in the console window and type man serial.

Table 1 - Cable Pinout Assignments for the Printer/Dumb Terminal Serial Cable

PC Modem Serial Cable

Use a full-handshake (includes RTS and CTS) PC modem serial cable for a modem with RTS/CTS flow control. Table 2 shows the cable connector pin assignments for this cable.

You can use this cable for all serial devices except those that do not need RTS flow control.

Devices like serial printers and dumb terminals that do not need RTS flow control can still be used with this cable provided that a null modem adapter is added to one end of the cable. You can purchase the full-handshake PC modem serial cable from Silicon Graphics or your local service provider.

Note: If you are attaching a modem with modem signals and RTS/CTS flow control, you must use the /dev/ttyf* command devices in the configuration files. For more detailed information, see the serial reference (man) pages. To access this reference (man) page, from the Toolchest choose Help> InfoSearch and select "Man Pages." Or place the cursor in the Unix shell window and type man serial.

Table 2 - Cable Pinout Assignments for a PC Modem Cable

Serial Port Converter Cables

The OCTANE workstation's serial ports conform to the PC standard pinout for EIA standard RS-232 signals.

The purpose of the adapter cable is to allow the OCTANE to use standard PC or Macintosh serial devices.

Table 3 show the adapter cable pinout for a standard PC or Macintosh serial port.

Table 3 - Female DB9 to Female MiniDIN8 Converter Cable

The purpose of the following adapter cable is to support ANSI/SMPTE Standard 107M-1992.

Table 4 shows the pinout for a Female DB9 to Female DB9 converter cable.

Table 4 - Female DB9 to Female DB9 Converter Cable

Note: For more detailed information, see the serial reference (man) page. To access the reference (man) page, place the cursor in the Unix shell window and enter man serial.

Or, access Man pages through the Toolchest > Help and in the Info Search window enter man serial.