From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Mar 16 10:59:42 1995 Return-Path: hackers-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id KAA23129 for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 16 Mar 1995 10:59:42 -0800 Received: from hda.com (hda.com [199.232.40.182]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with ESMTP id KAA23108 for ; Thu, 16 Mar 1995 10:59:39 -0800 Received: (dufault@localhost) by hda.com (8.6.9/8.3) id NAA04963; Thu, 16 Mar 1995 13:56:38 -0500 From: Peter Dufault Message-Id: <199503161856.NAA04963@hda.com> Subject: Multiport serial cards To: freebsd-hackers@freefall.cdrom.com Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 13:56:37 -0500 (EST) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Content-Type: text Content-Length: 1547 Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Since I'll be looking for a good multiport serial card I'm curious about what we have for support. We have: cy.c: cyclades cyclom-y serial driver sio.c: support for AST/4 compatable devices I'm interested in a board that will let me receive continuous data at 28.8 on four ports without any problems. At roughly 300 us per character that will mean we have to service each port every 4.8 ms with a 16550, or roughly 1.2 ms per port. (Of course lots of times when you're in the interrupt you'll be able to to serve more than one port) I think I should use a board with a large FIFO, which I don't think any of these have. I'm looking at: the Hayes ESP products (inexpensive at $600 for an 8 port card; can look like a big 16550 and so driver work needed; Hayes is in chapter 11 and at least some distributors claim they can't get product); the "Gtek" PCSS-8FX (a small company and pricey, about $1200.00 for an eight port card); The Digiboard intelligent cards (about $1000.00 and no driver yet). I thought there were comments about Digiboard being uncooperative. I've contacted them and the technical information is available on their bulletin board and their dysfunctional www site. Any thoughts on: 1. Using four 16550 ports as with the AST system in terms of loading; 2. Vendors for boards that look like "big 16550s" 3. Scoop about Hayes and Digiboard. Peter -- Peter Dufault Real Time Machine Control and Simulation HD Associates, Inc. Voice: 508 433 6936 dufault@hda.com Fax: 508 433 5267