mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt) (02/07/90)
In article <1990Feb6.171326.15603@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > I'm still disgusted that a 3/180 can't run a 2400-baud uucp line at full > speed -- the 44 could.) Gack! That's truly appalling. (I've never had to deal with Suns, and wasn't aware how awful their serial I/O stuff was.) We can handle uucp at 2400 baud on our IBM XTs! (With Venix/86, that is. I'm fairly certain that DOS+UUPC can go even faster, but it's undoubtedly a fairer comparison to match the two UNIXes.) And we all know what a pile of junk those boxes are. What's more, the 2400 baud is with the standard IBM serial card, which easily meets the cruddiness characteristics of the computer itself; you can certainly do 4800 baud uucp (under Venix) if you equip your XT with a decent serial I/O board; possibly 9600, I'm not sure. I presume that the 286 boxes (not quite as appallingly bad as the XTs, but still not terribly likely to win any major awards) would do better yet. I hope the designers at Sun are appropriately embarrassed. Mark Bartelt INTERNET: mark@sickkids.toronto.edu Hospital for Sick Children mark@sickkids.utoronto.ca 598-6442 UUCP: {utzoo,utgpu,lsuc}!sickkids!mark
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (02/08/90)
In article <387@sickkids.UUCP> mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt) writes: >> I'm still disgusted that a 3/180 can't run a 2400-baud uucp line at full >> speed -- the 44 could.) > >Gack! That's truly appalling. (I've never had to deal with Suns, and >wasn't aware how awful their serial I/O stuff was.) I think it's a combination of a dumb multiplexor and a dumb driver. Sun believes in workstations and Ethernets and doesn't believe in timesharing and serial lines, so the mux driver didn't get a lot of attention. Of course, even a workstation occasionally has to talk to someone serially, which is why most Suns have a pair of serial ports on the CPU board... and although the hardware behind those ports is even simpler than that on the mux board, the *driver* has been carefully and painstakingly greased up and *those* ports run very well at high speeds. -- SVR4: every feature you ever | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology wanted, and plenty you didn't.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
eric@ists.ists.ca (Eric M. Carroll) (02/08/90)
>I think it's a combination of a dumb multiplexor and a dumb driver.
The real solution is to never buy ALM boards and get Annexes. They are
about the same price and do a vastly better job. Excellent product.bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) (02/08/90)
In article <387@sickkids.UUCP> mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt) writes: |[...] |We can handle uucp at 2400 baud on our IBM XTs! (With Venix/86, that is. |I'm fairly certain that DOS+UUPC can go even faster, but it's undoubtedly |a fairer comparison to match the two UNIXes.) And we all know what a pile |of junk those boxes are. What's more, the 2400 baud is with the standard |IBM serial card, which easily meets the cruddiness characteristics of the |computer itself; you can certainly do 4800 baud uucp (under Venix) if you |equip your XT with a decent serial I/O board; possibly 9600, I'm not sure. |I presume that the 286 boxes (not quite as appallingly bad as the XTs, but |still not terribly likely to win any major awards) would do better yet. | |I hope the designers at Sun are appropriately embarrassed. Commodore Amigas have extermely fast serial ports - they'll handle MIDI flat out (32Kbps), and will reliably transfer over 1200 character per second, even with Amix. They appear to have better serial i/o capacity than the AT&T 3B1, which certainly is no slouch either... Cheers, -- (__) Bruce Becker Toronto, Ont. w \@@/ Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, bruce@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu `/v/-e BitNet: BECKER@HUMBER.BITNET _/ \_ Well I didn't want to mention it cause it's so silly, but you know how
davecb@yunexus.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) (02/08/90)
Someone (henry?) saith: >>I think it's a combination of a dumb multiplexor and a dumb driver. eric@ists.ists.ca (Eric M. Carroll) writes: >The real solution is to never buy ALM boards and get Annexes. They are >about the same price and do a vastly better job. Excellent product. Agreed! Anybody want to trade for some ALM-1's? --dave (alas, I have six) c-b -- David Collier-Brown, | davecb@yunexus, ...!yunexus!davecb or 72 Abitibi Ave., | {toronto area...}lethe!dave Willowdale, Ontario, | Joyce C-B: CANADA. 416-223-8968 | He's so smart he's dumb.