The PCI 16C650 is a type of serial communication interface chip, typically used for controlling multiple serial ports (RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485) on a computer. It is often found on PCI cards that provide extra serial ports to a computer, typically for industrial, networking, or data acquisition applications.
The 16C650 refers to a specific UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) chip made by NXP Semiconductors (formerly Philips). This chip is often used in PCI cards that add serial communication capabilities to desktop computers, servers, or embedded systems.
If you have a PCI card with the 16C650 chip, you'll need a driver to ensure that Windows can correctly communicate with the card and its serial ports. This driver allows the operating system to recognize and configure the serial ports, so that they can be used by software for tasks like connecting to external devices, modems, or other serial peripherals.