[Coco] 16550 wasRe: RS232 paks

[Mark Marlette]

Willard,

The NitrOS-9/Driver is already written for a 16550 device. I have had a homebrew card running for almost 10yrs based upon that chipset.

Yes, it would break all the old term programs. A caveat of adding new technology to an old machine. Not a problem in NitrOS-9 as the driver/dd is not part of the actual program, when properly written.

The SuperBoard has a multi-function chip on it that has the 16550 in it. Anyone that has done high speed serial testing in a system will design it with hardware handshaking. It is no secret that the ACIA(6551) has issues with this, plus almost no buffer space. Not a good choice for new designs, IMHO. 16xxx series offers GREAT buffers, programmable interrupt thresholds etc..... I guess that is why they are so common, oh they work too! :)

Regards,

Mark
Cloud-9

----- Original Message -----
From: "Willard Goosey" <goosey at virgo.sdc.org>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 11:56:39 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: [Coco] 16550 wasRe:  RS232 paks

On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 08:53:06AM +1100, Mark McDougall wrote:

> I also believe that at least one person has "gone 16550" to use his 
> words??? Is that the case? Are there many here that are using 16550, and 
> what software supports it?

There have been one or two projects to build a 16550 serial card.
>From what I understand, they have floundered not on the hardware
issues, but on software issues. :-(

Writing an OS-9 driver is one thing, but (I believe) the 16550 can't
really pretend to be a 6551, and this breaks *every* BASIC terminal
program ever written...

Willard
-- 
Willard Goosey  goosey at sdc.org
Socorro, New Mexico, USA
I search my heart and find Cimmeria, land of Darkness and the Night.
  -- R.E. Howard

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