gt4785b@pyr.gatech.EDU (CARTER) (12/06/87)
Is it possible to have a block of data shipped to the serial port in a similar manner as for the audio? (where you specify a big block of ram, set pointers and bytes/second, and the hardware does the rest). If so, will the memory fetches steal any processor time? And then how about the reverse- serial directly into memory? (let's say given that data is coming in nonstop at whatever bit rate). David Carter
dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) (12/06/87)
>Is it possible to have a block of data shipped to the serial port in a > similar manner as for the audio? (where you specify a big block of ram, > set pointers and bytes/second, and the hardware does the rest). >If so, will the memory fetches steal any processor time? .And then how about the reverse- serial directly into memory? (let's say > given that data is coming in nonstop at whatever bit rate). > >David Carter You can give the serial.device an arbitrary block and say go, but the serial device uses interrupts (interrupt per character) to send the data as well as to receive the data. The overhead depends on the baud rate, but doesn't slow down the computer all that much (I can still do compiles in other windows, etc...) -Matt