[n00b101]

I have successfully used a StarTech PCIe parallel port adapter card to interface with a stepper motor controller board, and I'm able to run CNC machining operations from LinuxCNC. It works fine in EPP mode (communicating bi-directionally).

The parallel port is actually very cool. You can take a high-end Linux machine and add the parallel port as a low latency GPIO interface with 25 pins. It can be used to control LEDs, motors, etc, and can also be used to receive sensor data, etc.

What is 'RAW' mode? I think you are referring to a legacy TCP/IP network printing protocol also known as "Port 9100." I'm not sure that's relevant to parallel ports?

[downvotemyjokes]

By 'RAW', I mean being able to drive the port by poking at 0x378 in a highly controlled manner. (Not terribly uncommon when the hardware in the article was originally released)

[stevetrewick]

This has been my experience when trying to interface with some legacy LPT stuff, much of the software of the era is basically hard coded to do that and won't play well with (or sometimes even recognise) the PCIe add on ports. YMMV, clearly.

[qb45]

0x378 is probably routed to the onboard LPT by the BIOS.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if those PCI cards used the same IO port protocol, only at some different address assigned in the standard way with PCI BARs.