ASUS EeeBox PC EB1021 AMD Brazos Nettop Hands On at Cebit 2011

[scootboots]

Yes, that's a DB9 serial port next to the VGA port. Asus spec sheet says it's a COM port, typical name for RS-232 serial ports before they were displaced by the USB 1.0 port starting in 1996. By 2000, with USB 2.0's max bit rate of 480 Mbps, the RS-type standard was left far behind. And now with USB 3.0 at 5 Gbps--this unit has 2--there would hardly seem to be any need for the serial COM port. So what's it doing here? How much backward compatibility could you possibly need?

[wesmckay]

@scootboots I've often wondered that same thing, but I love it. I use serial ports for controlling HAM radios, and I know a lot of engineering projects use RS-232 "tinkering" to make neat little circuits or whatever. I was NOT expecting to find one on any new PC.