From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Sep 5 22:42:47 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from rover.village.org (rover.village.org [204.144.255.49]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 20F3315CE4 for ; Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:42:41 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from imp@harmony.village.org) Received: from harmony.village.org (harmony.village.org [10.0.0.6]) by rover.village.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA33689; Sun, 5 Sep 1999 23:42:20 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from imp@harmony.village.org) Received: from harmony.village.org (localhost.village.org [127.0.0.1]) by harmony.village.org (8.9.3/8.8.3) with ESMTP id XAA03034; Sun, 5 Sep 1999 23:41:29 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <199909060541.XAA03034@harmony.village.org> To: Andrew Reilly Subject: Re: Limit of bus hierarchies (was Re: PCI modems do not work???) Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 06 Sep 1999 15:23:38 +1000." <9909061532290G.69570@gurney.reilly.home> References: <9909061532290G.69570@gurney.reilly.home> <199909060517.XAA02790@harmony.village.org> Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 23:41:29 -0600 From: Warner Losh Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG In message <9909061532290G.69570@gurney.reilly.home> Andrew Reilly writes: : So there's going to be manufacturer-specific terminal/serial port drivers : to talk to the serial ports on USB-attached laptop docking stations, like : the Annex ethernet terminal server things? I guess in the Windows world : they must provide 16550-virtualisation software, or else everyone's copy of : Telix or TeraTerm won't work. Or the parallel ports vs parallel-port : scanners. Or maybe these docking stations just won't work at all... No. The Windows world presents a standard SERIAL DRIVER interface, at least that's the theory that is preached. I see no reason why a USB serial port wouldn't do the same. USB defines a serial port interface, IIRC, which is the same across manufacturers (in theory) which would be handled by a single USB driver in our USB stack. Likewise with parallel ports. Although turning a USB parallel port into a bit twiddling interface may present some interesting challanges. Warner To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message