Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!aplcomm!capd.jhuapl.edu!waltrip From: waltrip@capd.jhuapl.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Is there an 8+ serial port mux for NeXT cubes available? Message-ID: <1991May3.144622.1@capd.jhuapl.edu> Date: 3 May 91 19:46:22 GMT References: <9104240831.AA01164@lhs.woodside.ca.us> <573@rosie.NeXT.COM> <1991Apr26.023505.32391@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1991May2.214100.13070@zardoz.cpd.com> Sender: news@aplcomm.JHUAPL.EDU Organization: CAPVAX, JHU/APL Lines: 27 In article <1991May2.214100.13070@zardoz.cpd.com>, neil@uninet.cpd.com (Neil Gorsuch) writes: [...material deleted...] > The way that our stuff works, we only incur interupts on each > block of characters, and the vast majority of characters traveling on > a serial port come as blocks of output characters from application > programs. I'd be interested in more details on how this works. This sounds a bit like you can't do raw (character at a time) I/O...but I doubt that's true. Comment? [...material deleted...] > ...compare our price to an ethernet serial box. The last > time I looked, most of them were in the $2,000 to $3,000 range. I believe they may be available in the $1,500 range these days. BTW, I believe the overhead issue is of some significance with regard to Ethernet terminal servers...both in terms of Ethernet traffic and use of ptys. TCP/IP based terminal servers tend to introduce a somewhat disproportionate Ethernet load...and don't they generally just make a telnet connection to the host, using a pty (and a socket?) in the process? c.f.waltrip Internet: Opinions expressed are my own.