mike@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Michael Lodman) (09/24/87)
I would like to have multiple serial ports on my Xenix PC. What are people
using in the way of add in boards for such things?
--
Michael Lodman (619) 485-3335
Advanced Development NCR Corporation E&M San Diego
mike.lodman@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM
{sdcsvax,cbatt,dcdwest,nosc.ARPA,ihnp4}!ncr-sd!ivory!lodman
When you die, if you've been very, very good, you'll go to ... Montana.cccook@deneb.ucdavis.edu.UUCP (09/25/87)
In article <204@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM> mike@ivory.UUCP (Michael Lodman) writes: >I would like to have multiple serial ports on my Xenix PC. What are people >using in the way of add in boards for such things? There are quite a lot of serial multiplexors available for the multiuser PCs. I am currently using a Computone ATvantage X-4P four-port multiplexor in my PC. I am very pleased with the product, and it wasn't expensive. It has an on board 8088-2 and two Z-80's to offload the I/O processing from my CPU, so even with all the ports in use, I don't see a lot of degradation in speed. Computone also makes 8-channel boards and tells me they are about to release a 16-channel mux with its own 80286. Another company, Digiboard, makes excellent multiplexors as well. Multiplexors offer several advantages over multiple serial ports. First, they take up only one interrupt & one slot, whereas your standard serial port takes up one interrupt per port. Plus the intelligent multiplexors will handle a lot of I/O processing on the board, rather than sending it through to the CPU. The price of a multiplexor (per port) is only slightly higher than buying several serial cards, and in some cases it might be lower. You should check into it. -Doug ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Douglas M. Cook | Address: --------------------------------| ucbvax!ucdavis!deneb!cccook (uucp) VMS Consultant | DMCOOK@UCDAVIS (BITnet) UCD Computing Services | cookfish@tuna.casserole (FISHnet) --------------------------------| Junior, Comp. Sci & Engr. | "This sentence no verb." University of California, Davis | "Ths sntnc hs n vrb." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tony@killer.UUCP (Tony Holden) (09/25/87)
in article <204@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM>, mike@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Michael Lodman) says: > > I would like to have multiple serial ports on my Xenix PC. What are people > using in the way of add in boards for such things? > We're using the 8 port board from Intellicom. It will let you have a "multi- screen" feature like you have on the console. Also defining function keys and remote printing. It is a new product and has a couple of small bugs but in general has worked very well. I have no complaints. Tony Holden ihnp4!killer!tony
chips@usfvax2.UUCP (Chip Salzenberg) (09/25/87)
In article <204@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM>, Michael Lodman writes: > > I would like to have multiple serial ports on my Xenix PC. What are people > using in the way of add in boards for such things? > -- > Michael Lodman We've evaluated three flavors of serial board for Xenix: 1. Computone. Works fine. We had to roll our own cables since the board has RJ-11 (phone-like) jacks. I didn't install it, but it's in use now and I've heard no complaints. Recommended. 2. Emulex. Works fine. (It's on my system.) I got a warm feeling when I saw drivers for SCO 2.1, SCO 2.2, and IBM Xenix included. The manual is shrink-wrapped, intended for insertion in your Xenix manuals. This is my favorite. Recommended. (You can configure each port as DCE or DTE, so you don't need null modems for direct connections with computers/terminals.) 3. Digiboard. We got the eight-port intelligent version. It didn't work -- `more' was broken!!! I called them and they said `Yes, the programmer(!) is working on that.' How can you release a Xenix peripheral that breaks `more'?!?! Also, the only driver was for SCO Xenix 2.2. Not recommended. (Note that my machine works fine with _six_ serial ports; the Emulex board has four and I still use tty1a and tty2a.) I hope that this info will help potential buyers to steer clear of trouble. Note that I speak only from _personal_ experience, and your milage may vary, etc. -- Chip Salzenberg UUCP: "uunet!ateng!chip" or "chips@usfvax2.UUCP" A.T. Engineering, Tampa Fidonet: 137/42 CIS: 73717,366 "Use the Source, Luke!" My opinions do not necessarily agree with anything.
jack@turnkey.UUCP (jack) (09/27/87)
In article <841@usfvax2.UUCP>, chips@usfvax2.UUCP (Chip Salzenberg) writes: > In article <204@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM>, Michael Lodman writes: > > > > I would like to have multiple serial ports on my Xenix PC. What are people > > using in the way of add in boards for such things? > 2. Emulex. Works fine. (It's on my system.) I got a warm feeling > when I saw drivers for SCO 2.1, SCO 2.2, and IBM Xenix included. > I would point out that although the Emulex card is reported to work well in 8Mhz machines it DOES NOT work at 10Mhz and above. Emulex is reportedly working on this problem but if you have a faster machine I would stay away from Emulex. I have a client using Computone on a 16Mhz 386 box and it works well, there is also a less expensive (read non-intelligent) 4 port card available from AST. -- Jack F. Vogel Turnkey Computer Consultants, Costa Mesa, CA UUCP: ...!uunet!ccicpg!turnkey!jack Internet: jack@turnkey.CTS.COM
steve@nuchat.UUCP (Steve Nuchia) (09/28/87)
In article <841@usfvax2.UUCP>, chips@usfvax2.UUCP (Chip Salzenberg) writes: > In article <204@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM>, Michael Lodman writes: > > > > I would like to have multiple serial ports on my Xenix PC. What are people > > using in the way of add in boards for such things? > > 3. Digiboard. We got the eight-port intelligent version. It didn't > work -- `more' was broken!!! I called them and they said `Yes, > the programmer(!) is working on that.' How can you release a > Xenix peripheral that breaks `more'?!?! Also, the only driver > was for SCO Xenix 2.2. Not recommended. I'm using an 8 port digiboard in my Microport box and I've been quite pleased with it. The stock kernel drives it with no trouble and it is a very pretty looking board. I don't know about the other boards available now, but at the time I bought mine it was the only one I found that supported full hardware handshaking on all lines. I really don't know how they could have broken more - that's strange. > Note that I speak only from _personal_ experience, and your milage may vary, > etc. ditto. -- Steve Nuchia Of course I'm respectable! I'm old! {soma,academ}!uhnix1 Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores !nuchat!steve all get respectable if they last long enough. (713) 334 6720 - John Huston, Chinatown
mike@cimcor.UUCP (10/01/87)
In article <337@nuchat.UUCP>, steve@nuchat.UUCP (Steve Nuchia) writes: > In article <841@usfvax2.UUCP>, chips@usfvax2.UUCP (Chip Salzenberg) writes: > > In article <204@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM>, Michael Lodman writes: > > > > > > I would like to have multiple serial ports on my Xenix PC. What are people > > > using in the way of add in boards for such things? > > > > 3. Digiboard. We got the eight-port intelligent version. It didn't > > work -- `more' was broken!!! I called them and they said `Yes, > > the programmer(!) is working on that.' How can you release a > > I'm using an 8 port digiboard in my Microport box and I've been quite > pleased with it. The stock kernel drives it with no trouble and it > is a very pretty looking board. As long as were now talking Microport, I might suggest the Stargate 8 channel serial board (Its also supports XENIX) which I'm using. The ttypatch utility in uPort's System V worked great in support all eight ports though I do have an occasional problem at 9600 doing uucp transfers. To solve that problem, I'm now using the Bell Technologies ICC card which has 6 high speed serial ports. The ICC board drivers linked right in with the unlimited kernal giving me a total of 15 serial ports. However, the ICC does have a brained damaged modem control support so I use it with remote terminals. I would guess that version Microport version 2.3 will make the serial problem at high speeds work better with all types of serial ports. There must be an internal buffering problem because I will drop characters using the Bell board when 'cu'ing to another computer I have hooked up. The card works great using kermit but not in cu. I'm waiting for my 2.3 update to see if that will solve the problem. -Mike {ihnp4,amdahl,rutgers}!meccts!cimcor!mike
plocher@uwspan.UUCP (John Plocher) (10/05/87)
+---- mike@cimcor.UUCP (Michael Grenier) writes in <316@cimcor.UUCP> ---- | However, the ICC does have a brained damaged modem control support so I | use it with remote terminals. | I would guess that version Microport version 2.3 will make the serial | problem at high speeds work better with all types of serial ports. There +---- Nope, the Bell drivers don't work with 2.3 :-( Bell doesn't expect to bother with the problem for "about a month"! I reported the brain damaged modem control to them about 3 weeks ago (on a Friday) and their response was "Are you sure you configured things right? No one else has complained." After I told them I was running a getty AND uucico on the same port they said "Oh, why don't you just get another modem" !??! The next Monday I talked to them and they said that they had discovered a "major bug" in the ICC driver "on Friday" and that they had a fix for it already. Unfortunately, they were going to delay sending the patch/bugfix out until a scheduled general upgrade "In a month or so". Also, "NO pre-release version will be shipped for any reason". What this all means is that our ICC card is unusable for anything except one direct connect terminal, and even then, the modem control stuff doesn't really work (turning terminal off doesn't log the user off). Maybe by Christmas... :-( All in all, Bell's Sales dept is better than Microport's, but Microport's support/service beats Bell's hands down!
fyl@ssc.UUCP (Phil Hughes) (10/05/87)
In article <337@nuchat.UUCP>, steve@nuchat.UUCP (Steve Nuchia) writes: > > In article <204@ivory.SanDiego.NCR.COM>, Michael Lodman writes: > > 3. Digiboard. We got the eight-port intelligent version. It didn't > > work -- `more' was broken!!! I called them and they said `Yes, > > the programmer(!) is working on that.' How can you release a > > Xenix peripheral that breaks `more'?!?! Also, the only driver > I really don't know how they could have broken more - that's strange. > Steve Nuchia The way you break more (and passwd) is have a buffer flush problem when you enter or exit raw mode. I have had a problem like this on many systems. Recently, this happens on the Arnet Smartport board in Tiwian AT clones. The tail end of more output gets lost. It seems to work fine on real ATs and they only know of two clones where this is a problem. We have one of them. -- Phil Hughes, SSC, Inc. P.O. Box 55549, +----------------+ Seattle, WA 98155 (206)FOR-UNIX | NO CONTRA AID! | ...!uw-beaver!tikal!ssc!fyl +----------------+
rickers@drexel.UUCP (Rick Wargo) (10/09/87)
In article <113@uwspan.UUCP>, plocher@uwspan.UUCP (John Plocher) writes: > [ blah blah about Bell's ICC not woking on uPort 2.3... ] this is a shame.. I was looking forward to getting my Intelligent Comm Card > All in all, Bell's Sales dept is better than Microport's, but Microport's > support/service beats Bell's hands down! We have a lot of Bell stuff, And yes, we run into some problems, but nothing that cannot be solved. I find that the people with whom I talk are intelligent and capable of solving the problems I have with their equipment. I alos think that Bell has a great Sales Department. I am satisified with my decision to purchase Bell's stuff. Rickers Oh yes, these are my own opinions, nor do I have any connection with Bell Technologies except as a satified customer.