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Logical Devices

Some devices have both a physical address and also a logical name. The two most commonly-encountered device types that work this way are serial ports (called COM1 to COM4) and parallel ports (LPT1 to LPT3). Actually, hard disks are labeled this way too, A:, C: etc., even though most people don't think of them the same way. The purpose of this logical labeling is to make it easier to refer to devices without having to know their specific addresses. It's much simpler for software to be able to refer to a COM port by name than by an address.

Next: Logical Name Assignment

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