MAX-A (マックス・エー Makkusu Ē) is a Japanese adult video (AV) studio which is especially known for videos made under its Samansa ("Samantha") and Calen ("Karen") labels which produced a number of innovative and quality AVs in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The Max-A studio released its first video May 23, 1992 on the Calen label (with the code XC-1001), Calen Falls in Love (恋するカレン), featuring Saori Kawana and directed by Hajime Kitano. A week later, the first Samansa label video, Witch-Wife (白石ひとみの奥様は魔女), directed by Kunihiro Hasegawa and starring AV Idol Hitomi Shiraishi, came out with the production code XS-2001 on May 30, 1992.
Max-A has had a long association dating back to at least 1997 with the Kuki group of companies, at one time the largest family of AV companies in Japan, comprising Kuki, Alice Japan, Atlas21, Media Station (Cosmos Plan), Big Morkal and Sexia. The companies in this group all belonged to the voluntary ethics organization called in English the Nihon Ethics of Video Association (NEVA) or in Japanese 日本ビデオ倫理協会 (Nippon Bideo Rinri Kyoukai or Japan Video Morality Association) usually abbreviated as ビデ倫 (Biderin or Viderin). As with other members of the Kuki group, the emphasis at Max-A has been on making videos featuring a single popular actress. The company reported that for 2003, the leading actresses in sales were Maria Takagi, Ryōko Mitake, Sora Aoi, and Akiho Yoshizawa. Among the actresses who have made their AV debut with Max-A are Hitomi Hayasaka in 2001,Yua Aida in 2004, and Rio (Tina Yuzuki) in 2005.
The MAX232 is an integrated circuit first created in 1987 by Maxim Integrated Products that converts signals from a TIA-232 (RS-232) serial port to signals suitable for use in TTL compatible digital logic circuits. The MAX232 is a dual driver/receiver and typically converts the RX, TX, CTS and RTS signals.
The drivers provide TIA-232 voltage level outputs (approx. ± 7.5 volts) from a single five volt supply via on-chip charge pumps and external capacitors. This makes it useful for implementing TIA-232 in devices that otherwise do not need any other voltages.
The receivers reduce TIA-232 inputs, which may be as high as ± 25 volts, to standard five volt TTL levels. These receivers have a typical threshold of 1.3 volts and a typical hysteresis of 0.5 volts.
The later MAX232A is backwards compatible with the original MAX232 but may operate at higher baud rates and can use smaller external capacitors – 0.1 μF in place of the 1.0 μF capacitors used with the original device. The newer MAX3232 is also backwards compatible, but operates at a broader voltage range, from 3 to 5.5 V.