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To: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
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Subject: Re: muliport boards - building a PPP dialup server 
In-reply-to: Your message of Fri, 28 Jun 1996 20:05:50 EDT.
             <Pine.3.89.9606282029.B9017-0100000@zoo.toronto.edu> 
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 01:48:16 -0400
From: "Jacob M. Parnas" <jparnas@jparnas.cybercom.net>
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In message <Pine.3.89.9606282029.B9017-0100000@zoo.toronto.edu>you write:
>> I'm confused.  I thought the 16550 was good up to 115,200 baud, but when
>> ISDN eventually takes over with compression, ~512kbaud will be the norm.
>> I don't know if they can handle that...
>
>Why bother trying to make them handle it?  Ethernet is a much nicer way
>to connect to high-speed networks (or even not-so-high-speed ones like
>ISDN), given that there has to be an interface gadget of some kind between
>you and the network anyway.  UARTs are for low speeds.
>
>                                                           Henry Spencer
>                                                       henry@zoo.toronto.edu

Henry,

The TI 17550 can go up to 900kbaud/second, which is a new UART.

Why connect at high speeds with a UART: money.  Most ethernet solutions
cost well over $1000 not counting the ethernet hardware which may not be at
home.  (card, tranceiver or hub, cables, etc).  I've seen a PC Card that
costs $199-$319 depending on who you are, and it does everything with a UART
on top (the software driver for BSDI will be $95.  So, how does $400 sound to 
you compared to the ethernet solution, considering that the $400 non-ethernet
solution compare to an ethernet one.  You can get up to 512 Kbaud/second
with it, it has 3 types of compression and header compression (Stac, Ascend
and Microsoft) and can change from two BRI channels down to one and vice
versa as the other channel is used for voice fax, analog modem, phone, etc.
Pretty good in my opinion.

Jacob