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From: aland@informix.com (alan denney)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Consensys Powerports board
Keywords: help - opinions needed
Message-ID: <1990Oct16.192720.15379@informix.com>
Date: 16 Oct 90 19:27:20 GMT
References: <270b459e-74comp.unix.sysv386@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Sender: news@informix.com (Usenet News)
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In article <270b459e-74comp.unix.sysv386@vpnet.chi.il.us> lisbon@vpnet.chi.il.us (Gerry Swetsky) writes:
>
>Perhaps my first posting didn't make it to the net.....
>
>Is anyone familiar with the POWERPORTS serial I/O card from Consensys
>Corporation?  The company says they've sold 10,000 of these.  Surely
>SOMEONE must have seen one!  They allegedly use a 32 bit processor on
>board and use NO interrupts.  Also their price is $395 per board to
>resellers.
>
>Help!

I'm using what is now the older generation POWERPORTS, which supports
8 ports on each main board, plus each main board can attach an optional
8-port daughtercard.  They now have 32- and 48-port boards.  These are
intelligent boards using NSC processors, and they have some really nice
features (any terminal can support up to 8 distinct sessions).

Anyway, I've been using the 16-port version in 6 different machines
for about 8 months.  I had one fail after a couple of months, and
they shipped a replacement the day I called (without waiting for the
bad one to come back).

They are based in Canada with a sales office in Texas.  Good stuff,
but $395 sounds awfully cheap...  are you buying large quantities?
List is $1395 for 8 ports and $1995 for 16 ports for the card with
512K and full POWERVIEW/POWERPRINT support.

--
Alan Denney      aland@informix.com      {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland

I'm Pro-Anarchy...   and I Vote!