To communicate with a device connected via universal serial bus (USB), a computer needs the driver, not just for the device itself, but also for the USB controller. Microsoft Windows uses USB ...

Prolific PL2303 is a USB-to-Serial adapter cable that lets you connect your computer to the devices with serial ports, like a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). When you connect a device with your ...

In Part I of this article, I briefly mentioned the generic USB driver in the context of getting a USB device to communicate through it easily, with no custom kernel programming. Unfortunately, I ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. As technology has advanced, the types of ports on computers have also changed for the better. However, that doesn't mean devices with older ...

We still have lots of things that have serial interfaces on them, switches, mangement modules, etc. But we're all out of things that have serial ports. Even the servers who's management modules have a ...

Saelig Company, Inc. announced the release of Prolific PL2303RA, an all-in-one IC that provides a convenient, low-chip-count solution for connecting an RS232 full-duplex asynchronous serial device to ...

If you’ve recently struggled with a Windows 11 laptop that refuses to charge via USB-C or won’t recognize connected devices, you’re not alone; 2026 has seen a noticeable uptick in these port failures.

In my last column [see LJ December 2002], we covered the serial layer in the 2.5 (hopefully soon to be 2.6) kernel tree. We mentioned in passing that a USB-to-serial driver layer in the kernel helps ...