Multiport Serial

[Bill Vermillion]

Shakespeare wrote plays and sonnets which will last an eternity, 
but on Tue, Nov 25, 2003 at 12:08 , Wm Brian McCane wrote:

> Greetings,
> 	This might no longer be a good place to ask this since so few of
> us actually use modems anymore, but...

> I am wondering which of the multiple serial port cards is best
> supported/maintained in FreeBSD.  I am also concerned with
> expandability...

> A customer with a server running about 20 dumb terminals plus
> some PCs on a network, wants to put a box in a satellite office
> to run 4 or 5 terminals and a printer. They also would like a
> new report system and we are looking at setting up a box with
> about 32 modems hanging off it's backside for faxing and dumping
> directly to onsite modem/buffer/printer units.

> So:
> 	support for 8 upto 32 ports
> 	well maintained driver
> 	capable of sending 32 simultaneous 19200 or faster faxes
> 	Not too worried about the price

Given the way the world has changed - and having managed many
multi-serial port devices in the far past, I think you'd be
better served by a terminal-server - which gives you multiple
RS-232 ports being connected to the OS by TCP/IP.  Performance
is much better than any serial boards I've seen in the past - with
the exception of the Specialix RIO devices with on Inmos Transputer
for very 8 serial ports.  That could handle about 70 ports
at 115Kb - and if you maxed it out with 128 serial ports
you could sustain about 70Kb.  But the damned wiring will kill you.

I don't know what terminal servers are supported under BSD but IMO
they are a better solution.   And they are easy to remote if
needed.

Bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com