Specialix cards (was: Welcome to comp.unix.sysv386)

[Alan H. Mintz]

Summ additions to Jeff's review:

In article <1990Sep5.014036.10985 at xanadu.com>, jeff at xanadu.com (Jeff Crilly N6ZFX) writes:
> >	Specialix
> >		Specialix provides a series of serial port solutions.  I
> >		have no experience/pricing info on these cards.
> >
> 
> There are a couple mechanical problems that I noticed with 
> the system.  First, the mating of the TAs is not very good.  It turns
> out there are some tolerance problems and as a result the plugs and
> sockets don't fully mate.  Specialix tries to solve the problem
> by providing straps that screw onto the side of the TAs.  Unfortunately
> the design of these uses self taping screws which tend to strip easily
> and the design of the strap just doesn't provide a secure and tight
> connection.

Yup!. Our solution is to remove the back panels of the TAs and screw them down
to an aluminum plate. We had some of these plates cut and drilled at the
local metal shop.

> Second, a similar problem exists with the host adapter.
> The back panel plate that the connector is on does not slide directly
> into the AT case slot.  Likewise the screw hole is also off.  I had
> to bend the back panel plate to make it fit.  The folks at specialix
> told me that their supplier sent them the wrong connectors and this
> was why the tolerances were wrong.  I believe they might be shipping
> units that have these problems solved, but be aware of it....they
> wouldn't replace mine with new ones.

I haven't had any trouble (really) with the host boards fitting in machines.
I do find it fairly common to have to bend backplates on various cards
with various machines. It seems that the PC mfrs and PC card mfrs "loosely"
interpret the physical specs for add-on cards (if there are any).

They have had the connector problem with the TA-8s for as long as I can 
remember. I suspect the stuff about the wrong connectors is, well, bogus.
The backplate solves this problem permanently.

> One thing you should know before buying is that the TAs serial ports 
> are configured as DTE devices.
                    ^^^
I think you mean DCE :-)

> As for throughput; they claim 38.4kbps.
> It works up there but I haven't tried any load testing.  I should note

We use them at 38400 routinely (over short distances) - no prob. I have
seen a number of benchmarks from competing boards that all rate the 
SI pretty well.

--

We tend to use Specialix almost exclusively for anything more than 8 ports.
Once the physical problem with the TA8s is solved, it is an excellent
product. It is a UK-based company, but they also have a (small) office
in Silicon Valley (with REAL technical people). They have been extremely
helpful and supportive when we had a hardware failure at a system we were
installing in NY (they FedExed a replacement for a defective cable to
New York at 3:00 PM Friday!).

I have heard that they now have a host adapter that will support up to
64 ports. I assume from conversations of two months ago that it is available
for the EISA bus as well.

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