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From: ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: A Cost Effective MULTI-SERIAL Device Proposition
Keywords: Multi-Serial Input Ouput Hardware Options Expansion
Message-ID: <19343@grebyn.com>
Date: 6 Feb 90 00:23:42 GMT
References: <76649@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Reply-To: ckp@grebyn.UUCP (Checkpoint Technologies)
Distribution: usa, world
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing, Vienna, VA, USA
Lines: 24

In article <76649@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> sutton@cherokee.cis.ohio-state.edu (roy a sutton) writes:
>
>   A  while  ago  someone  brought  up  an  idea  that is old to many 8 bit
>   machines, but still unimplemented on the  Amiga.    It's  a  very simple
>   solution the  need for  multiple serial ports for all Amiga models. This
>   solutions is so simple, that it makes me wonder why no one has developed
>   it.
>
>   What I re-propose is that a serial device driver be  implemented for the
>   software configurable use with either of the existing joystick ports.

	I invite you go forge ahead and implement this.  You probably
know why I wouldn't want to, I sell an add-in multi-serial card :-).
I recognize the validity of the approach - I used to own a Tandy Color
Computer, and it's serial port was a bit-banger.  It works, but you
shouldn't expect high performance.  The Amiga could probably
manage 1200 baud on a bit-banger without much loss and without hitting
on system performance too hard.  Higher performance than that will only
come by sacrificing multi-tasking, and I doubt you really want to do
that.

	You'll surely be able to make cheap serial ports, but
cost-effective?  That's a purely subjective call, depending on the
application.