The TL16C554A is an enhanced quadruple version of the TL16C550C asynchronous-communications element (ACE). Each channel performs serial-to-parallel conversion on data characters received from peripheral devices or modems and parallel-to-serial conversion on data characters transmitted by the CPU. The complete status of each channel of the quadruple ACE can be read by the CPU at any time during operation. The information obtained includes the type and condition of the operation performed and any error conditions encountered.