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Geoport
Last Updated: August 18, 2011
Definition - What does Geoport mean?
GeoPort is type of proprietary serial port made by Apple computers but is now obselete. It was designed for video and voice applications and provided an interface between a telephone line or modem and a personal computer and was last used in the early 1990s.
GeoPort's features included improved telephone and fax service if used with Apple Telecom 3.0 as well a 2 Mbps bandwidth. It was appropriate for videoconferencing but was mainly used with analog phones which could not support sufficient line speed/bandwidth.
The GeoPort could be found on m-68K-based machines and earlier pre-USB Power Macintosh models. GeoPort technology is similar to the standard serial port but has a faster data transfer rate. This technology has largely been replaced with modem technology and support now which tends to be available through USB.
Techopedia explains Geoport
The GeoPort was designed as an additional direct memory access (DMA) channel for internal sound hardware like modems and fax machines. Although the earliest versions were not fast enough to operate communication devices, later versions of the AV series were more than able to handle the processing speed. In this series, the GeoPort was located directly on the logic board as part of the system architecture. It was designed to unburden the CPU's audio, video, and graphical procedures and help it run faster.
In 1998, Apple Inc. introduced the iMac, which had a software modem based on GeoPort technology. Soon after, the GeoPort was removed and replaced with a 56K modem.
