Smart Multi-port Boards

[Larry Williamson]

In article <102 at wd0gol.WD0GOL.MN.ORG> barker at 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.