barker@wd0gol.WD0GOL.MN.ORG (Bob Barker) (12/22/89)
My appologies if something like this has been posted in the recent past, but I haven't seen it... I'm planning on purchasing a "smart" multi-port board for use on a Compaq Deskpro 386/25 running Interactive 386/ix version 2.0.1. I will be hanging a mix of terminals and a modem or 2 off of the machine and need to know what board is my best choice. I'm considering 8 port boards by Arnet, Computone and Digiboard. I've had experience with Arnet and Computone in the past (both good and bad) but not with Digiboard. The magazine ads for Digiboard as well as their literature makes them out to be the best performer (as far as high throughput and low CPU utilization). My primary concerns are: Ability to support full hardware flow control with a trailblazer Compatibility of device drivers with 386/ix Ease of installation/configuration/reconfiguration Reliability Support Naturally, the sales folks at each company tell me "no problem, our board does that - its the best." If anybody has any real-life experience, comments or opinions about these products or any others that I should be considering, I'd be very interested in hearing from you. I'll summarize to the net. Thanks!!! -Bob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bob Barker (612) 934-2136 Robert Barker & Associates ...!uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!barker barker@wd0gol.mn.org ...!amdahl!bungia!wd0gol!barker
larry@focsys.uucp (Larry Williamson) (12/22/89)
In article <102@wd0gol.WD0GOL.MN.ORG> barker@wd0gol.WD0GOL.MN.ORG (Bob Barker) writes: > I'm planning on purchasing a "smart" multi-port board for use on > a Compaq Deskpro 386/25 running Interactive 386/ix version 2.0.1. Have a look at Connect Tech Inc's Intellicon-8 smart card. We use quite a few of them here and we are very happy with them. > My primary concerns are: > Ability to support full hardware flow control with a trailblazer The Intellicon series of smart cards do not support hardware flow control with 386/ix (see note below), but if your only high speed traffic is uucp, then you won't need hardware flow control. The uucp protocol takes care of everything. I run our trailblazer at 19200 and we have had no problems. Here is a log of our typical daily traffic. (News feeds of compressed batches). Remote K-Bytes K-Bytes K-Bytes Hours Hours AvCPS AvCPS # # SiteName Recv Xmit Total Recv Xmit Recv Xmit Recv Xmit -------- --------- --------- --------- ------ ------ ----- ----- ---- ---- watmath 1472.370 0.000 1472.370 0.31 0.00 1304 0 44 0 maytag 1348.731 0.000 1348.731 0.29 0.00 1300 0 42 0 > Compatibility of device drivers with 386/ix Standard device driver for 386/ix, also support for MS-DOS, PC-MOS/386, QNX, Xenix, Microport, ??? > Ease of installation/configuration/reconfiguration Trivial > Reliability I've experienced no failures in the 3 years I've been using their boards. Both here, and at a previous employer. My previous employer purchases about 3 to 5 of these boards a month and has never had any troubles. > Support Very good. Free. Responsive. Knowledgeable. They have boards with 2, 4, 8 ports. They support RS232, RS422, RS485. They have a new product that allows you to combine the different interfaces on one board. You may contact Connect Tech at (519) 836-1291. I'm sure they have a distributer near you. -larry ---------- Note: With respect to hardware handshaking. The board supports it, but 386/ix blocks any access to it. Uucp traffic at 19200 into a heavily loaded 20Mhz 386 is not bothered by lack of hardware handshaking. And throughput is still excellent. Also note: I'm not related to anyone at Connect Tech, I just like their products.