From owner-freebsd-isp Fri Jan 24 12:56:48 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA18871 for isp-outgoing; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 12:56:48 -0800 (PST) Received: from pinky.junction.net (pinky.junction.net [199.166.227.12]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id MAA18865 for ; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 12:56:46 -0800 (PST) Received: from sidhe.memra.com (sidhe.memra.com [199.166.227.105]) by pinky.junction.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id MAA19580 for ; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 12:56:44 -0800 Received: from localhost (michael@localhost) by sidhe.memra.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id MAA18807 for ; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 12:53:16 -0800 Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 12:53:15 -0800 (PST) From: Michael Dillon To: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 56K vs X2? In-Reply-To: <32E8D2E8.7DE14518@multinet.net> Message-ID: Organization: Memra Software Inc. - Internet consulting MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Fri, 24 Jan 1997, graydon hoare wrote: > ok I've been watching people argue this one for a couple of days now and > have only one question, the answer to which (I believe) solves the whole > 56k problem: > > Are these modems (digital banks, singletons, etc.) > simply DSPs with soft-upgradable microcode? Unfortunately it's not that simple. The key issue is that there can only be one A/D conversion in the whole path to the customer. Some of these upgradeable modems actually have A/D conversions on the chip and so they will not be able to do 56K even with the software upgrade. For instance, Ascend has two different kinds of digital modems. The older ones cannot be upgraded and must be swapped with newer ones in order to do 56K. > if they're not, you MUST, no matter what, no matter who you're talking > to, MUST buy units which conform to the largest industry standard. > > this is the pivotal question, right? Yep. That's why the Lucent/Rockwell K56plus standard looks attractive. They certainly have the majority of the network access server market with Ascend, Livingston, etc... And there is no doubt that the majority of consumer modems sold (70%) use Rockwell chipsets. Michael Dillon - Internet & ISP Consulting Memra Software Inc. - Fax: +1-250-546-3049 http://www.memra.com - E-mail: michael@memra.com