FAS 2.08 async driver, part 1/4

[Uwe Doering]

ronald at robobar.co.uk (Ronald S H Khoo) writes:

>gemini at geminix.in-berlin.de (Uwe Doering) writes:
>
>> X     The current driver supports NS16450, NS16550A,
>> X     um82450 and i82510. 8250 chips are not supported due to various
>> X     bugs and speed problems in these parts.
>
>What kind of "not supported" status does the 8250 have ?  Will it still
>work at low speeds, such as 1200/2400 or will FAS simply refuse to work ?

FAS won't refuse to work, but chances are high that they will cause trouble.
As it costs my time to convince users via e-mail that they have a problem
with their UART chip, I wanted to be on the save side by stating that
the 8250 is unsupported.

The baud rate has nothing to do with these problems. It is simply a
matter of AT bus access timing. And this is independent of the baud rate.
8250 UARTs have no place in a high speed system. Period.

>I ask because sometimes it is not possible to replace the 8250 without
>killing the warranty on an internal modem.  Does this mean that I
>cannot use FAS with a system that has such a modem ?

Yes. In this case you might ask your vendor why he is so brain dead
to sell you a modem with a 8250 chip for your 386 system. Note that
even Intel has licensed the NS16450 chip (it's called 82450). Obviously,
they don't have very much trust in their own product (the 8250), either.

    Uwe
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