[namqn]

If the equipments use RS-232, then the only way to talk to them is via RS-232. That's fine. Your problem can be solved in different ways, depending on the data rate you need.

The baud rate is your communication speed, not the data rate. The data rate is how frequent you want your data. If your data rate is low, like 10 samples/second, then you probably can use some multiplexer to connect the equipments and the host PC to the PIC one-by-one.

If the data rate is high and/or control action is fast, then you probably need a couple of PICs connected together. They can talk to each other via different protocols.

Cheers,