bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) (03/04/90)
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was looking for a good terminal that
did dual host support that ran at 38kbps. The reason was that I was having
problems with MC-5's and an MC-10. I had heard of the Falco and asked for
reports on that.
First a summary of the replies.
---------
From: John Firestone <uunet!blake.acs.washington.edu!erf>
I am currently working on a Falco 5220 off a Sparcstation I. The terminal
will handle up to six sessions simultaneously over 1-3 serial ports and a
parallel port.
I have tested it on 100 feet of modular phone cable at 38,400 baud and had
no problems. It does require handshaking at that speed if you fill a page
buffer. Both the hardware and software varieties worked fine. I am currently
using hardware handshaking at 19,200 baud with GNU emacs. I would
expect the software handshaking would also work without spurious control-S
Control-Q characters, provided you did not ask for too many screens at once.
The terminal scrolls at about 1500 cps. Tek 4010 mode runs around 1000 cps.
If that is enough speed for you, I think you will really like Falco 5000
series terminals. It has just about any feature you could want (send
me a list and I will try checking it off). Just don't get this particular
model unless you like funny DEC VT-220/330 keyboards. (They put ESCAPE
and BACKSPACE back on but will I ever get used to those lost <> key's?)
-John
-------------------
From: Jean-Marc_de_chez_Hackers_alias_ <uunet!cao.gipsi.Fr!edgard>
We have some Falco 500 and we are satisfy with them. You can toggle
the port with the sequence 'CONTROL' 'F6', there is possibility to get
multi-window system (one screen for port A and one screen for port B, or
part of screen for port A and part of screen for port B).
The highest speed we use is 19200. In fact, the real data rate doesn't
exceed 15000 b/s. So you never use 38.4 feature.
edgard@cao.gipsi.fr Happy Valentine's
(-: Struggle for life!! :-) <----------------->
PS: Please, forgive my awful english
---------------------
From: uunet!sequent!tessi!agora.hf.intel.com!dragon (Bill Wheeler)
You mite look at the Qume119pluss
It does 38k bps,two hostports,better then anything I have ever seen.
---------------------
From: uunet!adspp!timsb
I believe the Link problem has been fixed with the new 2.05 ROMS. The
new machines should be shipping with these ROMS by now, and if you have
any with 2.01 or 2.03 ROMS, call Link at 1-800-448-5465 and ask for
Technical Support. Tell them that you have the old ROMS and want to
upgrade your ROMS. They sent us about 50 ROMS free of charge for our
terminals and our customers.
Also, the terminals will allow you to switch from the main port to the
auxilary port buy pressing Control-Select.
---
Tim S. Boshart | uunet!adspp!timsb | "After a time, you may find that
Abacus Data Systems | timsb@adspp.UUCP |'having' is not so pleasing a thing
2707 Middlebury St. | 219-295-4290 (voice)| as 'wanting.' It is not logical,
Elkhart, IN 46516 | 219-522-2964 (fax) | but it is often true." -- Spock
-----------------------
From: "Mike Davis -- Chief Operator, KCGL" <uunet!kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu!DAVISM>
In article <508@bilver.UUCP>, you write:
>In article <1990Feb26.231711.9073@edm.uucp-> geoff@edm.uucp (Geoff Coleman) writes:
>[Geoff's problems with MC-10's deleted]
I too own an MC5. What ROM version did you happen to get. The last update I
received as 2.02.
-------------------
Okay - now the results of the MC-5 problems. I talked with Link after getting
the above reply mentioning the new ROMs. They are version 2.05.
The problem was that the terminal would go into never-never land with one
application when a user would hold the down arrow key to scroll information.
The application uses a database manager called filePro. A one line summary of
18 records appear on a screen, with the current record selected in reverse
video for the full width. Each down arrow moves the highlight down one line.
Holding the down arrow causes the terminal to "lose it" after about 4 to 5
lines. The 1.0 ROMS don't exhibit this problem as bad as the 2.03 ROMS.
The new 2.05s cured many things but not this. After I put the new ROMS in I
called Link tech support and we tried several things. We even set the
transmit key speed down to 60cps on both normal and function keys. (The cursor
keys are considered function keys as far as the speed settings go).
It works at 9600 where it didn't before. At 38k it still has major problems
where a plain old Wyse 50 just chuggs along gracefully.
The tech's suggestions were to take off key repeat and slow the terminals
down. Those were both unacceptable, as the client wants the speed of 38k.
This is a an inventory lookup for a computer store, and the owner wants SPEED!
After looking at different options and none solving the problem the tech said
he would call me back shortly. He did, and said the director of engineering
was gone for the day so he would talk to him on Monday. We found a problem
that LINK didn't know existed, a timing problem according to the tech. He
also told me that he didn't feel their 2.03 was a "strong" release while the
2.05 was.
We are using the terminals on a '386 box, and using Anvil's Onboard serial
ports system. This is the new version with a 16Mhz processor on board. We
have 2.04 version software from Anvil installed. We had the 2.06 version
which gave a true 38kbps to the screen, and was visibly faster than the 2.04
drivers, but caused the previous problem to be worse.
The 2.05 ROMs did cure problems when moving from menu to menu. The menus are
displayed around a graphics box, and the toggling in and out of graphics mode
seemed to cause some problems. There is NO way to turn off the box drawing,
or I would. When will designers learn that graphics display causes
performance penalties and should be optional? Oh well.
We will find out what LINK has to say, and I will let you know here. Thank
you all for the responses.
And for you MC-10 users, I was told the new ROMs will be released Monday,
(March 5). The tech said I should really like those.
bill
--
Bill Vermillion - UUCP: uunet!tarpit!bilver!bill
: bill@bilver.UUCP