Introduction
This ASI interface, formally known as IASI2 came about because of a need for a simple method to interface electronic devices to either a PC or a microcontroller. Take for example the LCD controller. To control one of these devices from a PC requires at leas a parallel port and a fair bit of driver software. Only one device can be used for each port.
Using the ASI interface greatly simplifies this so that relays, colour displays, analogue capture can all be carried out with relative ease. The main objective of the protocol used was to enable it to be used with an ordinary terminal (e.g. HyperTerminal) and this is the reason the addresses and device commands have been given the values they have. It is still a 'byte' protocol as far as a microcontroller is concerned it just happens to use values that can be seen.
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