canoaf@ntvax.uucp (Augustine Cano) (01/02/90)
Happy new year, y'all: Some months ago, someone reported on some preliminary research about replacing the 1200 internal modem chip on the unix pc with a compatible 2400 baud chip. Further investigation was needed, but nothing else was ever heard. I don't remember who it was that posted about this, so I can't give proper credit. From what I remember, this was a planned upgrade for the P6 board. Can the original poster appraise the rest of us of the situation? Does anybody else know about this? I'm sure many Unix pc/7300/3b1 users would love to have a 2400 baud internal modem. Could this be done for a reasonable price? (reasonable = less than it would cost to have an equivalent external modem + the serial port to connect it). It seems that, no matter how many glue chips are needed, it should be cheaper than the external solution... Any info would be most welcome. Augustine Cano canoaf@dept.csci.unt.edu
gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (Gary S. Trujillo) (01/04/90)
In article <1990Jan1.173553.11869@ntvax.uucp> canoaf@ntvax.uucp (Augustine Cano) writes: > ... > Some months ago, someone reported on some preliminary research about replacing > the 1200 internal modem chip on the unix pc with a compatible 2400 baud chip. > Further investigation was needed, but nothing else was ever heard... Hmmm. I thought the answer to this question was placed into the periodically- posted "Answers to Commonly-Asked Questions," but I can't seem to find it in my archived copy of the last one I snatched back in March. Anyway, John B. Milton dealt with the question in one of the articles in his "HwNote" series: | From: jbm@uncle.UUCP (John B. Milton) | Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,unix-pc.general | Subject: Re: Can the 7300's modem go 2400 Baud?; HwNote11 | Keywords: HwNote P6 2400 floppy tape second hard drive | Message-ID: <459@uncle.UUCP> | Date: 14 Jan 89 08:30:04 GMT | | ...Here we go again... | [a bunch of 2400 symbols from hardware.h & modem.h deleted] | | > Can the modem go 2400 Baud? If not, why were these #define's made? | | Those 2400 things are there BECAUSE... | | Convergent Technologies, the OEM of the S4 (safari 4) a.k.a UNIXpc, was | working on the next model of the machine. This was to be mother board | revision P6. | | Things to be added: | | 1. 2400 baud internal modem. | 2. Provisions for a second hard drive. | 3. Addition of a 4th hard disk head select bit. | 4. Addition of a floppy tape drive, simlar to the external one, but slower! | 5. Addition of a some cicuitry so that the kernel could sense a P6 mother | board and react properly. | | ...The 2400 baud modem stuff was only put in as stubs. There is no real code | to drive the 2400 baud modem if it was there. The 2400 baud modem DID work on | machines inside Convergent. It used a proprietary AT&T 2400 DSP modem chip. | This is the sort of thing AT&T uses to make their own modems. It is not some- | thing the rest of us could get ahold of for reasonable prices. These days, | there is no point with 2400 baud modems coming down in price... -- -- Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst
jbm@uncle.UUCP (John B. Milton) (01/07/90)
In article <1990Jan1.173553.11869@ntvax.uucp> canoaf@ntvax.uucp (Augustine Cano) writes: >Happy new year, y'all: > >Some months ago, someone reported on some preliminary research about replacing >the 1200 internal modem chip on the unix pc with a compatible 2400 baud chip. >Further investigation was needed, but nothing else was ever heard. I don't >remember who it was that posted about this, so I can't give proper credit. I believe I said something about it [...] > Could this be done for a reasonable price? >(reasonable = less than it would cost to have an equivalent external modem + >the serial port to connect it). No. The chip that was planned is like the one we have: proprietary AT&T. Supposedly the chip people have in mind is already being used in AT&T external modems. The previous discussion covered the worst part: kernel changes. With external 2400 baud modems going under $100 for usable ones soon (if not already), it's just not worth the trouble John -- John Bly Milton IV, jbm@uncle.UUCP, n8emr!uncle!jbm@osu-cis.cis.ohio-state.edu (614) h:252-8544, w:469-1990; N8KSN, AMPR: 44.70.0.52; Don't FLAME, inform!