[rescue] Re: sparc 20 serial

[James Rice]

My TRS-80's and later Tandy MS-DOS machines also had female serial port 
connectors.  As I remember, the IBM PC used a variation of the RS-232 
standard while the Tandy machines used a true RS-232 port 
configuration.  Like the IBM variation of the Centronics port.  All of 
my older Tandy printers used a "true" Centronics port  therefore you 
needed special cables to connect to an "IBM compatible" printer.  Later 
Tandy printers went to the IBM version.

James

>Maybe I'm showing my age here, but years ago, the 'standard' serial 
>connector was female (the way Sun does it), and it wasn't till PCs that 
>they started putting male connectors on machines.  The logic to having 
>male connectors, which have pins that can bend, and break on relatively 
>expensive equipment, rather than on relatively inexpensive cables is 
>one I never could understand.
>

-- 
http://webpages.charter.net/jrice54/classiccomp2.html