From owner-freebsd-hardware Thu Jan 30 01:42:06 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id BAA01402 for hardware-outgoing; Thu, 30 Jan 1997 01:42:06 -0800 (PST) Received: from godzilla.zeta.org.au (godzilla.zeta.org.au [203.2.228.19]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id BAA01397 for ; Thu, 30 Jan 1997 01:42:02 -0800 (PST) Received: (from bde@localhost) by godzilla.zeta.org.au (8.8.3/8.6.9) id UAA05534; Thu, 30 Jan 1997 20:40:20 +1100 Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 20:40:20 +1100 From: Bruce Evans Message-Id: <199701300940.UAA05534@godzilla.zeta.org.au> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, plm@xs4all.nl Subject: Re: Fast 16550A compatible serial card?? Sender: owner-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >As cheap alternative to a Hayes ESP someone recommended me a serial >card called T9000+. It contains a 16550A compatible, yet runs at >max. speed of 460k8. > >Is this possible? And is it possible under FreeBSD? 16550A's are specified to work up to 1.5Mbps. Supporting 460.8Kbps properly would require a few changes (it might work modulo some buffer overflows at 460.8Kbps when the software thinks the speed is 115.2Kbps). Expect an ISA bus overhead of 15-20% per port at 46080 cps bidirectional saturated (corresponding to 4-5% at 11520 cps). At 150000 cps, the ISA bus overhead would be 50-65% per port (too large for normal operation) and the fifo trigger level would certainly have to be reduced to avoid silo overflows, and you would need a fast cpu faster than a 486 just to complete the i/o processing in the remaining 50-35% of the time. Bruce