serial port I/O in Unix

[TAYBENGH%NUSDISCS.BITNET at cunyvm.cuny.edu]

Hi,
        Can I send and receive data via serial port by calling open(), read()
and write() on tty device? What if the device connected by the serial port is
not a terminal, can I still use the tty device driver as serial-port driver?
If not, how can I poll/read/write serial port just like DOS environment (which
use interrupt)? For example, direct programming the hardware (serial port) in
Unix?
        Any pointers? Thanks in advance..

-Beng Hang Tay (email address: taybengh at nusdiscs.bitnet)
 Department of Information Systems and Computer Science
 National University of Singapore