Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!nebulus!dennis
From: dennis@nebulus.UUCP (Dennis S. Breckenridge)
Newsgroups: u3b.tech,comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: EPORTS & TB+
Message-ID: <1990Aug9.113122.8696@nebulus.UUCP>
Date: 9 Aug 90 11:31:22 GMT
References: <1990Jul30.032524.22522@robohack.UUCP> <473@mtndew.UUCP> <1990Jul31.144823.13802@robohack.UUCP> <1990Aug01.164029.3251@chinet.chi.il.us> <1990Aug3.040126.17331@robohack.UUCP>
Organization: Alchemy Mindworks, Vancouver, Canada
Lines: 31

woods@robohack.UUCP (Greg A. Woods) writes:

lots deleted...

>Now if only AT&T would provide source for their drivers, and a
>development system for those horrid 80186's on the smart-cards, for a
>decent price.  Then we could fix our own problems!

Well the problem is obvious. The 3B2 driver is not as generic as one 
would like. Some of the driver code lives on the 3B2 side of the world
and most of the "low level" code lives on the ports card itself. It is
easy to say, if I had the source I could fix it. There are many more 
constraints than just broken software. The ports card is driven by it's 
own heartbeat and interrupts are serviced on a hardware priority. What 
really has to happen is the hardware has to be modified, and then a driver
must be DESIGNED post facto. You cannot get away with a "MODIFICATION" 
of the existing driver and expect the card to work. This does not include
the fact that you have to deal with the 3B2's buss protocol and data block
transfer nonsense. I am sure that AT&T would be happy to relieve themselves
of the constant abuse they get as a corporation regarding that whole EPORTS
issue, but they are very aware of the costs involved to repair/redesign
the hardware firmware and software. If it was economical to repair or
resdesign do you not think that other companies would have cloned the card
and fixed the driver?
I wait, with flame suit donned, your reply!

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dennis S. Breckenridge  (604) 277-7413   dennis@nebulus.uucp         VE7-TCP 
               Mercifully Free of the Ravages of Intelligence :-)     
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------