serial port : Java Glossary

hardware to which you may attach a modem, serial printer or other RS-232C (Recommended Standard 232C) device. The JDK (Java Development Kit) does not come with built-in serial port/USB support. Serial ports are almost extinct, replated by USB (Universal Serial Bus), which is a sort of multi-drop serial port.

• JSSC: works on Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS (Operating System) X. Provided in Maven format.
• JMRI bundled up code abandoned by others.
• Unbundled Serial port support arrived with the Java version 1.2 javax.comm.SerialPort, aka JavaComm aka Java Communications API (Application Programming Interface). You can read up on how it works in a JavaWorld article. Sun has dropped the Windows reference implementation of JavaComm.
• SerialIO.com has implemented a commercial implementation of JavaComm. They have also created the SerialPort package. It handles various platforms including Linux. It lets you also get at virtual ports. It handles USB and Bluetooth as well.
• The commercial version of PortIO seems to have disappeared.
• JavaWorld article.
• Kevin Timm and Mark are working on a WIN/OS2/Linux serialport class.
• You might think you could solve your serial problem with a USB⇔Serial converter. The catch is Sun has no USB support.
• jUSB handles USB. There has not been any activity since 2003
• JSR-80 javax.usb as the Java Community Process, was assigned the task of coming up with an official Java USB API. The main class in javax.usb. UsbHostManager. The project appears to have been abandoned.
• LibUSB is a C library to access USB ports you can access from Java and various other languages.
• You may have to find/write C drivers and write some JNI (Java Native Interface) glue to them. You won’t necessarily need to implement a full serial driver, just enough to do what you want, e.g. toggle DTR (Data Terminal Ready) and read a stream of bytes from a random number generator USB device. Microsoft C Serial API.
• JMF supports USB webcams.

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