From owner-freebsd-hardware Sat Jun 29 00:54:26 1996 Return-Path: owner-hardware Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id AAA15223 for hardware-outgoing; Sat, 29 Jun 1996 00:54:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id AAA15218 for ; Sat, 29 Jun 1996 00:54:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from msmith@localhost by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id RAA20768; Sat, 29 Jun 1996 17:12:46 +0930 From: Michael Smith Message-Id: <199606290742.RAA20768@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> Subject: Re: muliport boards - building a PPP dialup server To: jparnas@jparnas.cybercom.net (Jacob M. Parnas) Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 17:12:46 +0930 (CST) Cc: henry@zoo.toronto.edu, hardware@freebsd.org, bsdi-users@bsdi.com In-Reply-To: <199606290548.BAA06076@jparnas.cybercom.net> from "Jacob M. Parnas" at Jun 29, 96 01:48:16 am MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Jacob M. Parnas stands accused of saying: > > The TI 17550 can go up to 900kbaud/second, which is a new UART. Compatible with the 16550? Appropriately clocked, the 16550 will run at 1.5Mbps. > Why connect at high speeds with a UART: money. Most ethernet solutions > cost well over $1000 not counting the ethernet hardware which may not be at > home. (card, tranceiver or hub, cables, etc). I've seen a PC Card that This is total bollocks. An NE2000 clone ethernet card and cables will cost you about $30 all up. > costs $199-$319 depending on who you are, and it does everything > with a UART on top (the software driver for BSDI will be $95. So, > how does $400 sound to you compared to the ethernet solution, > considering that the $400 non-ethernet solution compare to an > ethernet one. But it doesn't. You have zero flexibility, a driver with no source, and from what you're saying, a UART-style interface with the associated high interrupt and CPU overheads. > You can get up to 512 Kbaud/second with it, it has 3 > types of compression and header compression (Stac, Ascend and > Microsoft) and can change from two BRI channels down to one and vice > versa as the other channel is used for voice fax, analog modem, > phone, etc. Pretty good in my opinion. Thanks, but I'd go for an Ascend P50 or something similar any day. Particularly since this card is unlikely to pass the Austel tests anytime soon. > Jacob -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039 [[ ]] Collector of old Unix hardware. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[