From owner-freebsd-hardware Mon Mar 18 07:56:54 1996 Return-Path: owner-hardware Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id HAA01303 for hardware-outgoing; Mon, 18 Mar 1996 07:56:54 -0800 (PST) Received: from bacall.lodgenet.com ([205.138.147.242]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id HAA01262 Mon, 18 Mar 1996 07:56:37 -0800 (PST) Received: (from mail@localhost) by bacall.lodgenet.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA07629; Mon, 18 Mar 1996 09:51:49 -0600 Received: from tserv.lodgenet.com(204.124.120.10) by bacall via smap (V1.3) id sma007627; Mon Mar 18 09:51:40 1996 Received: from jake.lodgenet.com (jake.lodgenet.com [204.124.120.30]) by tserv.lodgenet.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id IAA26905; Mon, 18 Mar 1996 08:52:09 -0600 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by jake.lodgenet.com (8.7.4/8.6.12) with SMTP id JAA04029; Mon, 18 Mar 1996 09:04:13 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <199603181504.JAA04029@jake.lodgenet.com> X-Authentication-Warning: jake.lodgenet.com: Host localhost [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol X-Mailer: exmh version 1.6.2 7/18/95 To: Joe Greco cc: erich@basenet.com (Eric Hester), freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: comtrol rocketports In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 16 Mar 1996 09:45:46 CST." <199603161545.JAA24201@brasil.moneng.mei.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 09:04:13 -0600 From: "Eric L. Hernes" Sender: owner-hardware@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk We've been bombarded by serial vendors in the last 4 months or so. We are currently buying digi pc/8e's; we buy between 75 - 100 cards a month for our systems. We're in the process of migrating from SCO to FreeBSD. We've talked to digi, stallion, equinox, and comtrol, and maybe others. The salesman from comtrol was really excited about his card and wanted to send an engineer up to visit us and really show off their cards, I told him that he'd do better to get me a FreeBSD driver before he sent an engineer here; we haven't heard from him since :( At any rate I've personally seen the following intelligent serial cards work: Digi: PC/8e -- works quite well from what I've seen; a little more cpu intensive under FBSD than SCO, but works good. I've used both 64k and 8k windowed cards. Stallion: EasyConnect AT and PCI -- works very well, driver is actively worked on by a stallion employee! I'm gonna push for a switch to this one when we finally make the switch to FBSD. These support up to 32 ports from one isa/pci slot. EasyIO -- This is the moderately intelligent card based on the Cirrus CD1440 chip. The card is very similar to the Cyclades 8Y, RJ12's off the back (probably available in db{9,25} too). this card is cheap $200/8ports. Cyclades: 8Y -- I've seen it work. Didn't really beat on it, but it works. It's in the $200 price range. I've seen a few messages regarding the comtrol cards. Someone (julian?) indicated that comtrol isn't too bad a company to work with as far as getting programming specs and sample sources. Getting a working driver should only be a 2-3 week project provided one is a driver hacker, and has access to hardware and docs; oh yea and has that much free time. ;-) eric. -- erich@lodgenet.com erich@rrnet.com