UART 16550 (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter)
A chip in PC computers that is used for serial communications. It replaces the older 8250A and 16450 UART chips found on many PCs.
The 16550 UART overcomes limitations of the older chips. It can buffer up to 16 characters before generating an interrupt (the older chips generate interrupts after every character). It also recovers more quickly from interrupts in order to continue processing.
This chip is a must addition for computers using external communications devices (usually a modem) that transmit data in excess of 9600 bits-per-second (bps) within Windows.
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