Amiga 3000UX, X, OpenLook, Motif, Color, A2410, Etc. (somewhat long)

[Matthew Dillon]

In article <20039 at cbmvax.commodore.com> jesup at cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) writes:
>In article <1991Mar20.211652.3247 at kessner.denver.co.us> david at kessner.denver.co.us (David D. Kessner) writes:
>>My point is:	Would it have been better for C= to wait an extra 6 months to
>>get a Color X going-- BEFORE releasing Amiga UNIX?  I'm no marketing GURU, but
>>my gut feeling is that C= will get bad market perception for releasing UNIX and
>>I seriously doubt the A3000UX's ability to do 38400 baud, and 19200 is
>>questionable (this is under UNIX, ya know).  The limiting factor here is
>>the ability of the OS to grab a character from the UART before the next
>>character comes in.  If the OS cannot get it in time (ie, intterupt latency)
>>then that character is lost.	A buffered UART (like the 16550) has a 16
>>byte buffer than can capture several characters during the intterupt latency
>>period.  UNIX can be quite bad about servicing intterupts of this nature.
>
>	There are solutions to this.

    Also, don't forget that most UNIX machines have major problems with
    baud rates above 19200 when using a direct-interrupt scheme.  Most
    multi-port solutions these days have co-processors, hardware SILO's,
    etc, etc, etc... even so it is still possible to overrun the buffer
    capability on most UNIX boxes, especially loaded down ones.

    The simple solution for the amiga is to use the A2232, 7 port serial
    card (assuming all the bugs get fixed).  I haven't used the internal
    serial port for anything except Enforcer (I have a plug in the port
    that wires pin 2 to pin 3).  While the card is unable to do 38.4,
    it can do 19.2, which is good enough for me.

>--
>Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
>{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup at cbmvax.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup
>The compiler runs
>Like a swift-flowing river
>I wait in silence.  (From "The Zen of Programming")  ;-)

					-Matt

--

    Matthew Dillon	    dillon at Overload.Berkeley.CA.US
    891 Regal Rd.	    uunet.uu.net!overload!dillon
    Berkeley, Ca. 94708
    USA