devices such as mice. The 25-pin D-sub connector recommended in the standard is large compared to current practice. Role in modern personal computers In the book PC 97 Hardware Design Guide, Microsoft deprecated support for the RS-232 compatible serial port of the original IBM PC design. Today, RS-232 has mostly been replaced in personal computers by USB for local communications. Advantages compared to RS-232 are that USB is faster, uses lower voltages, and has connectors that are simpler to connect and use. Disadvantages of USB compared to RS-232 are that USB is far less immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and that maximum cable length is much shorter (15 meters for RS-232 versus 3–5 meters for USB, depending on the USB version and use of active cables). In fields such as laboratory automation or surveying, RS-232 devices continue to be used. Some types of programmable logic controllers, variable-frequency drives, servo drives, and computerized numerical control equipment are programmable via RS-232. Computer manufacturers have responded to this demand by re-introducing the DE-9M connector on their computers or by making adapters available. RS-232 ports are also commonly used to communicate to headless systems such as servers, where no monitor or keyboard is installed, during boot when operating system is not running yet and therefore no network connection is possible. A computer with an RS-232 serial port can communicate with the serial port of an embedded system (such as a router) as an alternative to monitoring over Ethernet. Physical interface In RS-232, user data is sent as a time-series of bits. Both synchronous and asynchronous transmissions are supported by the standard. In addition to the data circuits, the standard defines a number of control circuits used to manage the connection between the DTE and DCE. Each data or control circuit only operates in one direction, that is, signaling from a DTE to the attached DCE or the reverse. Because transmit data and receive data are separate circuits, the interface can operate in a full duplex manner, supporting concurrent data flow in both directions. The standard does not define character framing within the data stream or character encoding. Voltage levels The RS-232 standard defines the voltage levels that correspond to logical one and logical zero levels for the data transmission and the control signal lines. Valid signals are either in the range of +3 to +15 volts or the range −3 to −15 volts with