Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!steinmetz!davidsen
From: davidsen@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: uucp to hundreds of sites
Message-ID: <9499@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: 10 Feb 88 16:45:11 GMT
References: <253@amanue.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 22

[ question about lots of ports on a micro ]

  After I saw your question I collected statistics on my machine, and I
think I have a reasonable answer to your question. All times quoted are
for Xenix/286, 8MHz AT, dumb serial ports.

  The overhead of starting uucico, locating a remote with data to
transfer, and placing the call is about 1500ms. The steady state cpu
load is about 6% at 9600, about 2% at 2400.

  Given that (a) my little machine could theoretically support about 16
dumb lines, (b) my 386 at home is about 300% faster, and (c) the steady
state overhead will be a *lot* lower with smart serial cards, I see no
reason to doubt that you could run 24 lines at up to 9600 baud without
problems. There are a number of good cards out there, including Bell
Technologies 6 port smart card.

  I think you can do it with power to spare. Use lots of memory.
-- 
	bill davidsen		(wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
  {uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me