What is CTS?

In the world of asynchronous communication (over Mac or PC serial ports), CTS stands for clear to send. When a computer needs to communicate with an outside device physically connected to it (peripheral), the two of them have to go through this preamble of making sure each of them is ready to hear what the other has to say, and confirm that they are going to be speaking the same language. Somewhere near the beginning of this preamble, one device will send an RTS (Request To Send) message. The receiving device will then reply with a CTS message “Yes, I’m now ready for anything you want to send me.” I know, the whole thing sounds like you may be sitting there drumming your fingers on your desk, waiting for these flipping machines to get done with their senseless checklist. Relax. Like most processes done by a computer, this one takes less than a millisecond.