Hi Perseo,
I was looking to DAC714.pdf from BURR BROWN - and expect that your Chip is in fact the same. This chip needs a kind of SPI (serial parallel interface) because you have to manage 5 Inputs (clk,SDI,/A0,/A1,/CLR);the SDO is for sure not of interest in your case. From my point of view I would use the parallel port.
Find attached an EXCEL sheet with copied front-panel and diagram of an small program I made for MAX168 (12bit ADC) using the paraport. The scope-picture was taken at a PIII - 450MHz machine(Win98). On W2k or NT
the performance is 2-3x slower. If you have further questions .... have a look to the diagram; there you will find one of my email - adresses. Hope that this gives some basic ideas. If you really need to use the serial COM - por
t you will have to use some more hardware, because you need to split the 16 Bit into parts .............. From Natinst position it is for sure clear: buy a board...........( not my opinion - but it depends .............)
regards
wha