Fax H/W and Software for SCO-Unix/Xenix

[Rick Richardson]

In article <2000 at ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> eli at ursa-major.spdcc.COM (Steve Elias)
writes:

>hardware and software available from brooktrout technology (BT).
>twin channel fax board, DID fax, SCO and other unix support. 617 235 3026.

I'll point out that the BT supplied application software is
really just a sample to show you how to interface to their
device driver.  It isn't close to being something you could
call complete.  BT support is in our package, but the
device driver hasn't passed our QA yet.  When it does, we
will provide full support for the board, including the DID
capability on one or both of the channels.  DID is direct
inward dialing and is receive-only.  What this means
is that you can rent a DID trunk from the phone company with
a block of, say, 100 telephone numbers assigned to the trunk.
The trunk is terminated at the BT FAX board, which is capable
of receiving the DTMF tones from the telco which identify the
telephone number that was dialed.  By mapping the telephone
number to a specific person, incoming FAXes can then be
delivered to the correct person automatically.  As far as I
know, BT is unique in providing this capability in their
hardware.

>V-systems recently announced their product, which uses an external
>fax modem made by fujitsu.  see this week's infoworld for more info.
>v systems, brad playford, 714 545 6442.

The Fujitsu dexNET-200 is a serial interface device with some nice
features such as "EIA/TIA-578 Service Class 2" style (just style,
since there is no standard, yet) session management using "AT" commands,
and Epson printer emulation (good for DOS folks, I don't think its a
big win for UNIX types).  I consider Service Class 2 type serial FAX
modems to be the absolute minimum intelligence that a UNIX based
FAX package would want to support.  Unfortunately, the current
Fujitsu product has a big drawback in that it can only receive
FAXes at 4800 bps (though it can send them at 9600).  In practice,
I think that limits you to send only applications.  Note that to send
9600 (synchronous) bps FAX you need to be able to deliver 12000 bps
asynchronous to the modem.  This implies operating the interface
at 19.2kbps.  For some computers, the additional implication is
that the serial port be an intelligent one.

>both PC Research and UNIFAX make SCO UNIX fax software which uses
>the Hayes internal 9600 faxmodem.  the hayes faxmodem is vapor, however.

Yes, its true that Hayes has had some trouble bringing the Hayes
branded JT FAX 9600B to market (it used to be a Quadram product).
Hayes says the product had to be delayed to meet their quality standards.
They *are* shipping the product now, although it will take a few
more weeks for all of the backorders to be filled and for the normal
distribution pipe to get filled.  In my opinion, the JT FAX 9600 has
the best hardware interface for UNIX of any FAX board currently available.
It does session management, has a heavily buffered dual port memory
interface (like the highly regarded Equinox multiport serial card),
and does not use interrupts or DMA.  Not using interrupts
is important because many systems just don't have any to spare.
Avoiding DMA is important because many clone system boards have
botched it.

Although the bus based FAX boards do not use AT style commands,
they can be *loosely* categorized according to the EIA/TIA
definitions of service class.

Service Class 1 boards are those really cheap boards that you see
advertised.  These boards require that the software do all of the
CCITT T.30 handshaking and the boards typically have no buffering
(or intelligence) and interrupt on a per character basis.  These
are obviously bad news for UNIX.

Service Class 2 boards handle the CCITT T.30 protocols for you.
The current Brooktrout TR111/112 boards are examples of this
type of board.  Since you need a CPU on the board to do Service
Class 2, the interface is usually more advanced, such as using
DMA or dual port memory.

Service Class 3 boards add file conversion, such as ASCII to
FAX or TIFF to FAX.  The Hayes JT FAX 9600B does ASCII
conversion, so you would classify it as having Class 3 features.
I think BT may upgrade their firmware to do file conversions.
Obviously, the more complex the file conversion, the more CPU
horsepower which is required.  I think that HP PCL and PostScript
emulation will eventually be done by the boards.  Those
conversions are currently done on the host in software.

BTW, Steve Elias's list of vendors are all backed by some
very experienced UNIX talent.  Once you determine the
features and environment you need, I don't think you could
go wrong in selecting any one of those vendors.

One vendor that didn't make Steve's list, because they cater
to the Sun market, is the Bristol Group.  They have probably
the most advanced user interface which is totally based on
and requires X windows (ours, for example, retains a character
oriented interface but can view and display under X windows).
The Bristol Group uses a Service Class 1 external serial FAX
modem.  I believe they are at the hairy edge of reliable
operation and require some SPARC kernel tuning to get good
receive performance.

-Rick

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