95A Parallel Ports
  Port "A" (bottom parallel port) is an ExpressPrint Parallel Port that supports IEEE 1284 (P) compliant devices at up to 2MB/s.  Using vendor supplied multiplexer and software, users can attach up to four supported printers and output 300 dpi complex graphics at the rated speed of the printer and still have capacity left over. Compared to a direct LAN attachment, where data is sent over the LAN twice before being printed, the busmaster ExpressPrint Parallel Port not only reduces the load on the server processor, but prevents the LAN from being flooded with unnecessary printer traffic.

Port "B" (top parallel port) is a standard parallel port.

Note: If you experience a problem with a non-IBM device when attaching it to either the parallel port, you might need to go to the Change configuration screen of the system programs and set the port DMA (direct memory access) arbitration level to "Disabled."

    Click here to download the file A5318.EXE this file contains PRNT5UPD.EXE and README.TXT 

A. Simple.  Start the System Program (either from the System Partition on your hard disk drive, or the Reference Diskette), and look at the Arbitration Level for the serial and parallel ports. The parallel port should be set to Shared 7, and the serial port should be set to Shared 4 for Transmit Arb Level, and Shared 3 for Receive Arb Level.  If your system has two DMA serial ports, the second serial port should be set to Shared 6 for Transmit Arb Level, and Shared 5 for Receive Arb Level.  These are the defaults.  If the ports are set this way, they are using DMA.

Two Parallel Ports under W98SE
How do I ensure both my parrallel ports are enabled with ECP on a 95A? 

Dr. Jim Shorney (on sabbatical)
Actually, use of the LPT interrupts is software dependent.  Windows' 'standard parallel port', by default, is PIO and does not use interrupts.   Just set one up last night while trying to help Art, and I was able to install both parallel ports as 'standard' with no exclamation points.

Art Reid
   I got it using Jim's procedure with a few twists... I made the port setting changes in system setup but left DMA turned on because video manufacturer says I need ECP through DMA on the port for best performance. Next I booted system, went in ControlPanel and added a new ECP port. However, when checking the port in ControlPanel/System I did have an exclamation point on the new ECP port.
  I had to then change the ECP port @ manually under the resources tab to 278-27A. (No more conflicts). Both the printer and video camera are working fine. Printer on plain LPT port and camera on LPT2 (ECP) with DMA.
 

F/MUX Information
   The lone existing F/Mux is all I know to be in existence. I'm not sure if Warp Nine Engineering will ever produce it. Now that USB is out, there is less reason than ever to do so. For more info on the F/Mux, go HERE

Err ... PS/2 sysboard LPT are bidirectional by nature. There are 3 registers used on LPT ports:
- data register (LPT-I/O +0)
- status register (LPT-I/O +1)
- control register (LPT-I/O +2)

   The I/O port adress for LPT1 is usually 03BCh on PS/2, the control register is then 03BEh. (You can determine the adress with reading the bytes at 0000:0408 and 0000:0409 in the Bios adress space - the LSB is first, it will read BC 03).
   If you set bit 5 (direction) of the control register to 1 you can read from the bytes present at the data-register. To permanently read from the LPT-port you need to set the bit 0 (strobe) to 1 you get the bit pattern changes on the port. I use that for the little program that reads the CP codes from another machine. 
   A proper handshake signalling between two computers using the bidirectional mode will most likely work over reading the BUSY lines from one computer to the ACK signal on the other ... you need to read the status of the two lines to determine, which of the two is the sender and which receives data. This is a bit tricky ... but some other software does that already and uses this feature.
   The PS/2 parallelport is a great device to be used as e.g. input from a Analog-to-Digital converter (however: only 8 bit resolution). For many simple purposes this is truely great. I used the parallel port to control the functions of my AKAI tape-machine ... or used it for some other weird stuff.
   The system board provides two 25-pin D-shell connectors to the parallel port controllers on the system board. The drivers to the data lines can source up to 15 milliamps and sink up to 24 milliamps.

   Ahem ... I would say the BOCA is too slow.  Remember that the "target" machines for these cards were the Mod. 50 - 80 with the MCA Stage 1 / Stage 2 layout. The 720 is not even "real MCA" but a Corollary system, which uses 80MB/s data streaming mode on all MCA-slots. Therefore only a very limited  number of adapters has ever been announced for it. The "normal" adapters *may* work in the 720 ... or may not. Most worked though - but there was a number of adapters that did not. The Boca cards use very large, very cheap ASICS -as the most of the Multi-I/O card do- which are known to be slow and I got reports that they even fail on faster Mod. 80 (and 76/77, 85, 90 and 95 as well).
  The Mod. 95 also may handle them good or not - but the "True MCA" machines have a slightly different mechanism / arbitration to handle slower cards than the Corollary MCA bridge - obviously this implementation is not 100% compatible with the MCA Stage 4 of the Mod. 9595 or the Stage 3 of the older 8595-machines.

>Unfortunately, the instructions warn not to use it in a 32 bit slot as damage might result to card or machine.
    This card is rather old and originally designed for the slow 10MHz-80286 machines like Mod. 50 and 60, but will also run in 16-bit slots in a 16 or 20MHz Mod. 80.
    The "Full 32-bit" machines, like 85 / 90 / 95 run on a later and much  faster MCA-specification and therefore *might* cause damage to the card buffering chips (those which connect the card to the bus) due to a much to short cycle speed.
    The manufacturer - aware on possible problems and upcoming warranty issues - wrote this note in the manual to free himself from  possible loss. Logically. 
    All in all I would say it is not specified and not certified to be used in a Mod. 95.
     The first thing to be damaged is the card itself - but there is the risk of getting a sort of secondary impact on the machines' systembus drivers, which might get permanently damaged because of overload due to short-circuits in the adaptercard.
     In case of doubt: I would not use it. Only the manufacturer knows what might happen, and they don't write such a (negative) passage in the manuals just to tease the users.

*** Data parity is a function of the high-speed parallel port parallel port A only).

Parallel Port x
     The  parallel port x  can be set as Parallel 1 through 4 or the port can be disabled.
   <Parallel 1 ( io 03bch-03bfh 1278h-127fh int 7)>, Parallel 2"  (io 0378h-037fh int 7), Parallel 3 ( io 0278h-027fh int 7), Parallel 4 ( io 1378h-137fh int 7), Disabled

Parallel Port x DMA Arbitration Level
      The parallel port x connector can be set to any one of the available DMA arbitration levels.  If the level selected is shared then other devices can be set at the same level.  If the level selected is dedicated then only this device can be set to that  level.
     <Shared level 7>, Shared level 6, Shared level 5, Shared level 4, Shared level 3, Shared level 1, Shared level 0, Level 7, Level 6, Level 5, Level 4, Level 3, Level 1, Level 0, Disabled"

Parallel Port x SCB I/O Address
   The parallel port x connector can be set to any one of the available SCB I/O addresses.
        <8100-8102>, 8900-8902, 9100-9102, 9500-9502, A100-A102, A900-A902, B100-B102, B900-B902, C100-C102, C900-C902, D100-D102, D900-D902, E100-E102, E900-E902, F100-F102, "Disabled