Using serial device file to connect a lcd display

Hi,
Linux has character device file representing serial port /dev/ttys*.I can simply open , read , write , close a serial port using system calls in my c programme.I am working on a board which has an intel atom processor.The board runs on fedora , it has 2 rs232 interface.
What I dont get is ,how to associate this serial port with the rs232 interface , I want to connect a lcd display to the rs232 and be able to write data to the display, using usb is last choice since I am building a portable medical kit ,I dont want it to be power hungry.
Any sample code, links of howto code such interface is welcome.

Thank you,
Sharan

The simple terms serial port and RS-232 interface reference the same thing. RS-232 is the standard that describes the electrical and physical hardware characteristics of the serial port.

http://www.easysw.com/~mike/serial/serial.html

Can you post a link to the board?

So, in my /dev there are 4 character device files ttys0 ,1,2,3 .
You are telling me I can connect a lcd or some external device to rs232 and communicate with it using one of these file as an interface.
Am I correct or missing something?
This is the board link, has board spec and documentation.

http://www.indiaeduservices.com/cms/...=82&Itemid=166

Thank you,

Yes, but there are only two physical ports so it would be ttyS0 or ttyS1.

If you want to write C code to communicate serially with your LCD, you should consult the following very good references, which will provide you with some working code to get you started, and a lot of detail that you probably wouldn't have discovered on your own.

Serial-Howto
Serial Programming Howto
Serial Programming Guide for POSIX OS's

--- rod.