[ Discussion about Falcon serial capabilities ]

> The numbers are accurate enough, but that doesn't preclude operating at
> these speeds. Keep in mind that a lousy 128K Macintosh with 7.75 MHz 68000
> could handle AppleTalk at this speed - the trick is to only allow interrupts
> for the first received byte of a packet, and then run a polling loop until
> the end of the packet. 

I don't think this Mac was running a Unix-like system (multi-tasking) when
it was talking AppleTalk (== netatalk in NetBSD) at that speed ;-) When
there are some other jobs running on the Falcon and thus eating some
resources the serial speed is limited. I thought I heard 38k4 in this
context, but this is hearsay.

> For another data point, I have had no trouble using Zmodem between a TT
> and Falcon at 115.2kbps. (This is my fallback when they're too far to do
> transfers over SCSI.) When you say "the LAN port does not work," are you
> talking basic hardware fault, or software driver problem? I can assure you
> that the hardware works as advertised.

Software. There was a bug report about the Falcon LAN port a while ago. I'm
not sure who send it, but the problem was that 'normal' serial communication
did not work. He was trying to connect a terminal using a conversion cable
to the LAN port. Because I don't have a Falcon to test with, the bug is
still open...
On the TT the serial2 connector definitely does work - I used it myself.

> Final point - there's nothing preventing you from obtaining an 8530B and
> desoldering/replacing your 8530, to get a deeper FIFO, more reliable high
> speed operation, etc...

Of course...

Leo.