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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: com port question again!
Message-ID: <1993May9.163932.3153@latcs1.lat.oz.au>
From: wongm@latcs1.lat.oz.au (M.C. Wong)
Date: Sun, 9 May 1993 16:39:32 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia
Lines: 37
Hi,
I need some advice before investing in an AST (or compatible) dump muliport
serial card.
When I first heard about Chris' driver for interrupt sharing, I thought it
meant I can have "standard" COM1, COM2, COM3 and COM4, driven with shared IRQ
on standard COM address, not until later I realized that it meant to be for
interrupt sharing card only. And that is when I already invested in 4 standard
COM ports (2 cards) already. My question is :
Should I merely sap the current (COM3 & COM4 card) with one that supports
alternate IRQ2 and IRQ5, since that causes cheaper.
On the other hand, I am thinking of investing in something like AST (or comp.)
dump 4-port serial card, and let it sits on IRQ2. The reason being that, I am
having COM1 and COM2 on a local bus multi-i/o card which supports only IRQ4 and
IRQ3. If I am to substitue, say my standard COM1, with the 4-port IRQ sharing
card, it means a lot of marking around with my h/w, and worst of all I can't
use the multi-i/o card COM1 slot. So, before I invest on multi-port card, I
like to know :
i) Is there any driver for IRQ sharing with the standard COM1-COM4 ?
ii) If i) is out, will a dumb multi-port card give me a satisfactory
performance with 386BSD and existing COM driver ? (in terms of the
speed, and reliability, becasue with a 9600 terminal from my COM1, I
find its screen update not up to expected satisfactory, and on higher
I finds it hangs up the session very soon). Also, I will need to use
the spare COM to drive a 14.4K Masetro modem and 1 or 2 more terminals.
Note, I am not criticising or biasing on anyone's COM driver, but I hope that
someone can tell me the latest status of Chris' driver (Chris ?), and Bruce's,
and whether the latter is included in patchkit 0.2.3 ?
Many thanks in advance !
--
- wongm@latcs1.lat.oz.au