Lava Computers Moko L73.1 2SP PCI Serial Parallel Adapter Card DB9 DB25

Lava Computers Moko L73.1 2SP PCI Serial Parallel Adapter Card DB9 DB25

The Lava Computers Moko L73.1 is a PCI combination I/O adapter card that adds one RS-232 serial port and one parallel port to any desktop PC with an available PCI slot. Manufactured in Canada by Lava Computers, the card uses a Xilinx XCS05 FPGA as its core controller — an approach that allows flexible, hardware-level port management. It is designed to restore or expand legacy port connectivity on systems that lack onboard serial or parallel interfaces.

Specifications & What's Included

• Manufacturer: Lava Computers (Made in Canada)
• Part Number: Moko L73.1
• Product Designation: 2SP PCI
• Bus Interface: PCI (standard PCI slot)
• Serial Port: 1x DB9 male (RS-232)
• Parallel Port: 1x DB25 female
• Controller: Xilinx XCS05 FPGA, markings VG100CKN9933 / A1095802A
• Additional IC: EPROM chip visible (EI16G552 / 993 date code)
• CE marked; board dated 9293 (1992–1993 era)
• Card only — no driver disk, bracket hardware, or documentation included

Applications

PCI serial/parallel combo cards like the Lava Moko L73.1 were widely used through the 1990s and into the 2000s to add or restore legacy port connectivity to desktop PCs. RS-232 serial ports were the standard interface for external modems, barcode scanners, label printers, POS terminals, industrial controllers, and data acquisition devices. The DB25 parallel port was the dominant interface for dot matrix and laser printers throughout that era. As motherboard manufacturers began dropping onboard serial and parallel ports in favor of USB, add-in cards like this one became a practical solution for maintaining compatibility with legacy peripherals. Today, these cards remain useful for industrial, automation, and legacy-system environments where RS-232 devices or parallel-port printers are still in service. The Xilinx FPGA-based design, uncommon in budget I/O cards of this generation, indicates a higher-quality implementation than typical UART-based alternatives. The 1992–1993 manufacture date places this in the early PCI era, when PCI was just displacing ISA as the standard expansion bus on IBM-compatible PCs.