) (04/30/91)
Recently, I've been reading a lot of posts concerning the 16550 UART. Exactly, what does it do compared to other UARTs? For example, I ran a program which told me that I have a 16450 UART. Since the chip itself costs about $15, I am wondering whether or not I should upgrade it. Can I easily replace the chip without any side effects? Is it as easy as installing a math chip? -- +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Santanu Sircar BITNET: ssircar@umaecs.bitnet | | University of Massachusetts/Amherst INTERNET: ssircar@ecs.umass.edu | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
eric@cs.fau.edu (Eric Thav) (05/01/91)
In article <13465.281d8745@ecs.umass.edu> ssircar@ecs.umass.edu (Good writers re-write -- not write!) writes: >Recently, I've been reading a lot of posts concerning the 16550 UART. Exactly, >what does it do compared to other UARTs? For example, I ran a program which >told me that I have a 16450 UART. Since the chip itself costs about $15, I am >wondering whether or not I should upgrade it. Can I easily replace the chip >without any side effects? Is it as easy as installing a math chip? You can easily replace an older UART with a 16550 as long as the older chip not soldered in. If it is, you'll need to be handy to take it out. Otherwise, just take the old one out and put the new one in. The advantage of a 16550 is that it contains a 16 byte FIFO buffer (first- in, first-out). This comes in very useful when you are using a multi- tasking environment, such as Desqview, and a high-speed modem. The multitasker will cause the high-speed modem to start losing characters every know and then without it. The 16550 will buffer up to 16 bytes, just enough so that the multitasker can give enough time back to the comm program. However, programs you use must be written to take advantage of the 16550. Comm programs such as Telix, Qmodem, Crosstalk, etc. are, though there are some that are not. I believe Procomm Plus 2.0 is written for it, but has some bugs that were fixed with a patch recently released. -- .signature not found, format hard disk instead? (Y/N)_ Eric L. Thav Florida Atlantic University - Boca Raton, FL INTERNET: eric@acc.fau.edu GEnie: E.THAV | PRODIGY: Lots of ads BITNET: eric@fauvax PRODIGY: NMVG80A | and we read your mail!
mitsolid@acf5.NYU.EDU (Thanasis Mitsolides) (05/01/91)
>>Am I imagining things, or did someone report getting a 16550 driver for >>windows3 from a company BBS (I *think* it was Hayes) ? > >I think you mean the following which recently appeared on SIMTEL20: > ><MSDOS.MODEM> ESPDISK.ZIP 72098 17.04.91 > High speed 16550a serial driver for WIN3 & OS/2 Can this work with just a 16550a or does it need a full ESP interface? I only have a 16550a and after ome manual fine tuning I managed to make my 3rd 16550a port accesible from windows using the ESP drivers. However, when I downloaded files the downloading would often stop for a few (10-20) seconds then proceed again. Zmodem registered no transfer errors. Has anyone succedded installing this driver to drive a 16550a (no ESP) port? Thanasis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: mitsolid@cs.nyu.edu (mitsolid%cs.nyu.edu@relay.cs.net) UUCP : ...!uunet!cmcl2!cs!mitsolid ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: mitsolid@cs.nyu.edu (mitsolid%cs.nyu.edu@relay.cs.net) UUCP : ...!uunet!cmcl2!cs!mitsolid -------------------------------------------------------------------------------