multiport boards

[Larry Snyder]

>  I use Consensys Powerports up here. I have tested many ports cards
>  and have found the Powerports to be the most reliable. It supports
>  bi-directional hardware  flow control that does not "skid" . It has 
>  other features like powerview (multiple login sessions on one dumb
>  terminal (not 'X' or layers(1) )) and transparent printing. It does
>  not eat an interrupt and fits either into the DOS ram space or out
>  in REAL memory at the 14-16 meg window. I have four Microcom 9624's
>  runing off it as well as a 5620 terminal and most of my Ham radio 
>  gear and I have not found a problem with it yet. 
>  They are in Toronto, Canada and thier phone number is 940-2900 

Well - latest news - I bought one of the Digiboard PC8i (12.5 mhz
80186 - their top of the line 8 channel board) and the drivers
worked perfectly with serial terminals and one way modem communications -
but big problems with bi-directional communications like the dropping
of DTR on ALL 8 CHANNELS (even in the middle of a UUCP transfer)
when changing from outgoing back to incoming on one of the modem lines.
The Digiboard went back yesterday.

Yesterday, I traded some hardware for a Hostess board - an 8 channel
dumb serial card that is supported under SCO (BTW - the SCO tech reference
notes are incorrect on the address of the ports - I had to go into
/usr/sys/io/sioconf.c and check the address).  Anyhow - this board (even
though no smarts) is working dandy under SCO.  Now I get to see (if and
how much) a dumb port can tie up the system!

Now I can move on to multiple controllers!
-- 
Larry Snyder                                              SCO Xenix 2.3.2 '386
uucp: iuvax!ndcheg!ndmath!nstar!larry 
The Northern Star Usenet Distribution Site                    HST / PEP / V.22
Notre Dame, Indiana USA                            Home of the fighting Irish!