On Tue, Sep 29, 1998 at 02:42:29PM +0200, noud de brouwer wrote:
> now that i have to rebuild the disk i'd might as well update the serial card.
> luckely we now know a more modern multi port serial card..cyclades.
> 
> please can anyone confirm the
> Part #        Model        Description                    Enduser1
> 1-TOPA-3010   CYCLADES-8Zo 8 ports, DB25, Octopus cable   $894
> is usable as well?? at 115k2? ((highly expensive btw))

I have been using a PCI version of a 16-port Cyclades for dial-in and PPP
for 2.5 years now and it has been working well.  However, the board isn't
as intelligent as you'd expect: The CD1400 chip (I think it was) has only
12 byte FIFOs which is worse than the normal ISA serial cards.  The only
thing that makes Cyclades better is the ability of automatically negating
the RTS line to stop the incoming data when the FIFO becomes full (the
normal ISA cards with 16550 UARTs need the CPU to do this).  However, with
the older Cyclades boards, you need a special cable for this (to swap the
DTR and RTS signals).

I don't know of any _good_ serial cards.  How many of you would get one
if I built one? ;-)

  -jm