Editing COM (hardware interface) (section)

==History==
The name for the COM port started with the original [[IBM PC]]. IBM had called the four well-defined communication [[RS-232]] ports the "COM" ports, starting from COM1 through COM4. In [[BASICA]] and [[PC DOS]] you can open these ports as "COM1:" through "COM4:", and all PC compatibles using [[MS-DOS]] used the same denotation.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}  Most PC-compatible computers in the 1980s and 1990s had one or two COM ports.

By 2007, most computers shipped with only one or no physical COM ports. Today, few consumer-grade PC-compatible computers include COM ports,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/s/seriport.htm |title=Serial port |access-date=2020-09-14}}</ref> though some of them do still include a COM [[Pin header|header]] on the motherboard.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/254998/motherboard_port_guide_solving_your_connector_mystery.html |title=Motherboard Port Guide: Solving Your Connector Mystery |access-date=2020-09-14}}</ref>

After the RS-232 COM port was removed from most consumer-grade computers, an external USB-to-UART serial adapter cable was used to compensate for the loss. A major supplier of these chips is [[FTDI]].{{cn|date=September 2020}}