Magitronic A-B232 Mini 2S1P 8-Bit ISA I/O Card 2 Serial 1 Parallel w/ Manual

Magitronic A-B232 Mini 2S1P 8-Bit ISA I/O Card 2 Serial 1 Parallel w/ Manual

The Magitronic A-B232 is a Mini 2S1P 8-bit ISA multiport I/O card that adds two serial (COM) ports and one parallel (LPT) printer port to a PC via a single half-length ISA slot. Designed for the 8-bit ISA bus, it is fully compatible with IBM XT, AT, and 286/386/486 systems equipped with 8-bit ISA slots. This card is not plug-and-play — port addresses and IRQs are set manually via onboard jumpers to avoid conflicts with other peripherals.

Specifications & What's Included

• Manufacturer: Magitronic
• Model / MPN: A-B232
• Bus Interface: 8-bit ISA
• Port configuration: 2S1P — 2 serial ports (COM) + 1 parallel port (LPT)
• Form factor: half-length ISA card
• Serial interface chip: Motorola MC1489 UART line receiver (visible on PCB)
• Board marking: COMA-BLPT / MINI 2S1P (printed on PCB)
• Connectors: DB25 parallel port on bracket; serial ports via included ribbon cable with DB9/DB25 connectors
• Configuration: jumper-selectable IRQ and I/O address — not plug-and-play
• Country of manufacture: Taiwan, R.O.C.
• Compatible systems: IBM XT (8088), AT (286), and 386/486 PCs with 8-bit ISA slots
• Includes: original Magitronic retail box, B232 Mini 2S1P User's Manual, ribbon/breakout cable, and slot bracket

Applications

8-bit ISA multiport I/O cards like the A-B232 were a standard expansion solution for DOS-era PCs from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. Systems based on the 8088, 8086, and early 286 processors often shipped with limited built-in I/O — commonly only one serial port and one parallel port — making a card like this necessary for connecting additional peripherals such as serial mice, external modems, plotters, or dot-matrix and daisy-wheel printers simultaneously. The 8-bit ISA bus (also called the PC/XT bus) was introduced with the original IBM PC in 1981 and remained standard through the XT and into the AT era, with the 16-bit AT bus maintaining backward compatibility so 8-bit cards could also seat in 16-bit ISA slots. Today, these cards are sought by vintage computer enthusiasts, restorers of classic IBM-compatible machines, and operators of legacy industrial or scientific equipment that still runs DOS on period-correct hardware. New-old-stock examples in original packaging are particularly valued since the components remain fresh and the jumper headers have never been bent or reconfigured.