The SiLabs CP2102N is useful for serial to parallel. It will talk to Linux with the standard Linux serial driver, although you need a free Windows program from SiLabs if you want to reconfigure it. (This is needed only for unusual applications.)
I use them because they'll go down to 45 baud for antique Teletype machines. They're popular for Arduino applications, and there are lots of cheap breakout boards with 0.100 pins for Arduino interfacing.
Interesting. I'd gotten the impression the FT232 was "rock solid" and filed them away as "they're good, use them", but that was before the bricking incident, and now I'm not really sure anymore.
I guess on the surface the big thing I really like is device differentiation. Do CP2102Ns have unique serial numbers, or can that free utility burn in info I can use to differentiate?
You can set vendor ID, product ID, product string, serial string, release version, and max power requested. "Manufacturer string" is set to "Silicon Labs". After doing that, you can lock the device against further changes, if you want. This is all done via SiLabs "Simplicity Studio", which is a big IDE for their microcontrollers into which they wrapped up some of the device-specific tools for their simpler devices.
Thus, you can force the host machine to demand a device-specific driver if you need to. By default, it appears to the OS as a USB to serial port device.
Linux and Windows recognize it as such, without special drivers. Linux mounts it starting at /dev/usb0; Windows mounts it starting at COM3.
No bit-banging, though; it doesn't have the hardware.
Very nice that I can change the serial number! That's actually kind of better than the FTDI route, where the serial numbers are hardcoded; I get to use my own serial numbering scheme.
I kinda expected no bit-banging. FWIW, if I really needed that I could probably build something with an Arduino (or similar microcontroller), and there are probably devices out there that do offer that functionality. I've never practically needed it; it's just my catalyst.
I use them because they'll go down to 45 baud for antique Teletype machines. They're popular for Arduino applications, and there are lots of cheap breakout boards with 0.100 pins for Arduino interfacing.