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Date:      Sat, 27 Apr 96 14:05:51 PST
From:      "Brett Glass" <Brett_Glass@ccgate.infoworld.com>
To:        "Rodney W. Grimes" <rgrimes@GndRsh.aac.dev.com>, dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu
Cc:        dshin@ponder.csci.unt.edu, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Boot floppy problem with Intel Atlantis motherboard (Mac
Message-ID:  <9603278306.AA830640135@ccgate.infoworld.com>

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> No, it't the IBM design idiots 8514 vs COM4 scew over because all the
> world is going to become PS/2 compliant.  (PS/2 compliant means thall
> shall decode 16 bits of I/O address for serial and video ports,
> independent of weither this is ISA, MCA or on the motherboard.) >

Actually, the "idiots" were the people at AST and Quadram who created
serial ports called "COM3" and "COM4" with interrupts that overlapped
COM1 and COM2 (the only ports that are actually standard) and port
addresses that were designated as "reserved" by the designers. When IBM
assigned standard port addresses for COM3, COM4, etc., they used a range of
16-bit ports that did not conflict with anything. But the cloners ignored
this, causing problems that have lasted to this day.




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