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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!rosevax!cimcor!mike
From: mike@cimcor.UUCP (Michael Grenier)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.unix.wizards,comp.sys.misc
Subject: Re: 8 port serial card
Message-ID: <415@cimcor.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 14-Nov-87 18:19:56 EST
Article-I.D.: cimcor.415
Posted: Sat Nov 14 18:19:56 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Nov-87 20:49:14 EST
References: <60@ucrmath.UUCP> <554@wolf.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Grenier & friends, Forest Lake, MN
Lines: 28
Keywords: 8 port serial card
Summary: Bell Technolgies Digiboard
Xref: mnetor comp.misc:1644 comp.unix.wizards:5473 comp.sys.misc:994

In article <554@wolf.UUCP>, steve@wolf.UUCP (Steven Harrison) writes:
> In article <60@ucrmath.UUCP>, neg@ucrmath.UUCP (Neil Gretsky) writes:
> > Does anyone in net-land have recommendations on 8-port serial cards
> > for use with Microport Unix/386. Why intelligent vs nion-intelligent?
> > Thanks in advance.
> > 				Neil Gretsky
> 

Neil,
   You can try the Inteligent Controller Card from Bell Technolgies
(1-800-for-unix) which I've been using under uPort 286. It seems
to work great for offloading the interrupt requests from the CPU.
This card and the one from Digiboard have fast CPUs on board with
enough memory to buffer the character streams at speeds up to 
one megabit per second. As I understand the driver, it actually
polls the board every so often for information (still many times
a second) and if info is available the card transfers the data
via DMA. Even at 60 times a second, thats still only one interrupt
every 16 milliseconds versus 125 Microseconds for 8 channels
each receiving data at 9600 baud. The actual transfer then takes place
as fast as the memory/bus allow. There is an excellent description of
this approach (as well as decriptions of UNIX under the 286 and 386) in
a new book, part of the Waite Group I believe, called the UNIX papers.
Its in most book stores. 
    -Mike
Both boards should work under Microport 386.

    {ihnp4, amdahl, rutgers}!meccts!cimcor!mike