Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!jgreco
From: jgreco@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Joe Greco)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: Rs-232 standard?
Message-ID: <703@csd4.milw.wisc.edu>
Date: 1 Feb 89 15:20:33 GMT
References: <1445.23E5B7E7@isishq.FIDONET.ORG>
Sender: news@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
Reply-To: jgreco@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Joe Greco)
Organization: UW-Milwaukee Home for Out-of-date 8 bit Hackers
Lines: 42

In comp.sys.cbm article <1445.23E5B7E7@isishq.FIDONET.ORG>, izot@f171.n221.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Geoffrey Welsh) wrote:
>under 800 bits per second (C64). Although a kludge documented by Steve Punter 
>(I posted the article in this newsgroup a few weeks back, I think) allows 
>passable 1200 bps and precarious 2400 bps, higher speeds and reliability 
>require carefully written and optimized software drivers.

Who IS the actual author of the "1200 kludge"?  According to other
knowledgeable local sources, it's NOT Steve, and this is an item that
I have heard repeatedly.

Software stinks for higher than 1200 baud operation.  Too much CPU
overhead.  :-)

>   I'm actually very saddened that Commodore decided not to include a real 
>6551 in the C64. Although the designers had no way of knowing how many C64s 
>would end up connected to modems, the C64 was at the forefront of bringing 
>modems into the home, and having a 6551 and less demanding serial disk timing 
>would have done much to enhance the C64's position as "the communicating home 
>computer".

I'm sure YOU realize that the C64 was also intended to be
"inexpensive" ... but I will include the following for everyone else's
benefit.  First, I have heard that there was some problem obtaining
6551's when the 64 was originally designed (they were quite
expensive).  Second, making the User Port an ACIA port would have
lessened it's flexibility (it couldn't have been used as a parallel
port).  Third, nobody ever imagined that people using the 64 (/VIC/et
al) would ever be rich enough to afford more than a 300 baud modem.  I
still remember a time when the 1600 cost as much as the VIC itself.
:-)  Therefore the software fudge was adequate (ROM is cheap).
Fourth, nobody ever really imagined that anybody would ever CARE about
telecom.  (gee, a fellow student just WROTE me a nice long man entry,
ah the fun of UNIX).

All of which kinda make sense, unless one wants to do 9600 on the 64!

:-)
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