From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Oct 19 10:13:34 1995 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id KAA25713 for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 19 Oct 1995 10:13:34 -0700 Received: from etinc.com (etinc-gw.new-york.net [165.254.13.209]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id KAA25664 for ; Thu, 19 Oct 1995 10:12:24 -0700 Received: from trumpet.etnet.com (trumpet.etnet.com [129.45.17.35]) by etinc.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) with SMTP id NAA27921; Thu, 19 Oct 1995 13:25:47 -0400 Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 13:25:47 -0400 Message-Id: <199510191725.NAA27921@etinc.com> X-Sender: dennis@etinc.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 2.0.3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: Joe Greco From: dennis@etinc.com (dennis) Subject: Re: Bragging rights.. Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk >16550's - free essentially because no serious hacker will buy 16450 serial >ports. For the 16550-impaired, you can get a *good* card (STB DSP-550) with >two 16550's for around $31 wholesale, including a bidir parallel port. > >The Motorola terminal adapters we use (UTA-220's) can do both sync and >async. Never tried the sync. You can find less expensive terminal adapters >that only do async. The UTA-220's were around $650 I believe when purchased >some time ago. Things like Bitsurfers should be in the <~$400 range. > >All else being equal, I would agree that the ET/502* solutions are a nice >way to go, but there are downsides: > >1) The ET/* board is at least $500 more expensive than a comparable 16550 > solution. >2) Typically you have to run sync at both ends of the link. Many ISP's > will charge you more if you burn one of their valuable sync serial > router ports, but could care less about the cheaper async terminal > server ports - this can be a difference of up to a few hundred bucks > per month! >3) A terminal adaptor that does sync _may_ be more expensive. > Actually the bitsurfers can be gotten for well under $300. and our ET/5025 with RS-232 interface is $400. So you're talking under $700. for a lot more bandwidth and none of the async CPU overhead. Plus if you wanted to go to 56k or frame or frac T1 you'd already have your adapter card. Dennis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emerging Technologies, Inc. http://www.etinc.com Synchronous Communications Cards and Routers For Discriminating Tastes. 56k to T1 and beyond. Frame Relay, PPP, HDLC, and X.25