1.1 Goals

The following are the architectural goals to support full Plug-and-Play of COM devices:

  1. Focus on ease-of-use for the end-user
  2. Maintain backward and forward compatibility as follows:
    • Plug and Play COM devices will electrically and functionally inter-operate with standard CCITT V.24, EIA/TIA-232-E, EIA/TIA-574 and equivalent serial ports and with existing software for compatible serial devices.
    • Any software that does Plug and Play COM Enumeration will detect Plug and Play compatible COM devices, but will not damage, incapacitate or confuse older non-Plug and Play COM devices.