14 Apr
2005
14 Apr
'05
2:52 p.m.
Scott wrote:
The 8530 is a useful part for dedicated purposes, but
isn't it severely
bandwidth cramped?
No, unless you're comparing to Ethernet.
I am thinking that it's the serial chip in the
Sparcstations, correct me if I'm wrong.
I think you're right.
A few years ago I was pondering
making a 'dialup connecting system with NAT server' out of a
SparcStation Classic (the little lunchbox type Sparc). I discovered
quickly that the serial ports on the Sparc are VERY speed constrained
because of the 8530 chip. It would have been impossible to connect my
USB Courier V-everything modem to it at, say 57,600 baud, because the
8530 just plain won't go that fast.
Sounds like a problem with Solaris. The chip is easily capable of over
1 Mbps. There's a commonplace existence proof of the ability of the
Z8530 to do over 230 Kbps -- that's what was used for LocalTalk
(low-end physical layer of AppleTalk, originally simply called AppleTalk)
on most Macintoshes from 1984 to the mid 1990s.
Eric