Hi August,
 AA> Which raises the question: why did anyone think that more than 2
 AA> comm ports would ber USEFUL if they shared irq's like that?
The IRQs can be re-assigned.  When the basic PC architecture was designed it 
seemed a reasonable compromise.  You can, after all, use two ports with the 
same IRQ as long as only one is in use at any given moment.
Rick
--- 
---------------