v34serial.device is a perhaps useful replacement for serial.device.
It appears to allow only 8 N 1 connections, but limited testing 
indicates that data flow may be a bit faster than with other 
serial port device drivers. 

 PERMSSN    UID  GID    PACKED    SIZE  RATIO     CRC       STAMP          NAME
---------- ----------- ------- ------- ------ ---------- ------------ -------------
[generic]                 2140    3496  61.2% -lh5- c31c Jun 15  1994 v34serial.device
[generic]                  393     702  56.0% -lh5- 978b Jun 15  1994 v34serial.doc
[generic]                  529    1035  51.1% -lh5- ac5b Nov 27  1994 v34serial.comment
---------- ----------- ------- ------- ------ ---------- ------------ -------------
 Total         3 files    3062    5233  58.5%            Nov 28  1994