Datacopy Microfax 8-Bit ISA Fax Controller Card 3-Port RJ-11 Vintage 1986 PC

Datacopy Microfax 8-Bit ISA Fax Controller Card 3-Port RJ-11 Vintage 1986 PC

The Datacopy Microfax is an 8-bit ISA fax controller card designed for IBM PC XT and AT-compatible computers. Produced by Datacopy Corporation — whose tagline was "The Eye of the Computer" — the Microfax allowed early PCs to send and receive faxes directly through standard telephone lines via its three onboard RJ-11 phone jacks. This example comes with its original Datacopy branded box, a rare survival for a card of this age.

Specifications & What's Included

• Brand: Datacopy Corporation
• Model: Microfax
• Bus Interface: 8-bit ISA (PC/XT/AT compatible)
• Form Factor: Full-length ISA expansion card
• Bracket Ports: 3 × RJ-11 phone jacks
• Onboard ROM: U32 V 1.00 (firmware version visible on chip label)
• Onboard logic IC: SN74LS245N (visible on PCB)
• Onboard connector: 34-pin ribbon cable header (visible on PCB)
• Vintage year: 1986
• Includes: Original Datacopy branded box

Applications

The Datacopy Microfax belongs to a small category of early PC fax cards from the mid-1980s, when dedicated fax boards were the only way to give a desktop computer fax capability — standalone fax machines were expensive and fax modems as we know them today hadn't yet become standard. Cards like the Microfax plugged into the ISA bus of an IBM PC XT or AT and interfaced directly with the public telephone network through standard RJ-11 connections, allowing software running on the host PC to compose, send, and receive facsimiles. Datacopy was a California-based company active in the 1980s known for scanner and imaging peripherals; the Microfax extended their imaging product line into fax communication. By the early 1990s, integrated fax-modem cards and later software-based fax over standard modems made dedicated fax controller cards like this obsolete. Today the Microfax is a collectible piece of early PC peripheral history, of interest to vintage computing enthusiasts, collectors, and researchers documenting the evolution of PC telecommunications hardware.