couldnt something similar be implemented internally by sun hardware
engineers on newer machines?

On Fri, 2003-05-16 at 14:56, Brett Lymn wrote:

> By default, all Sun machines will drop to the OBP if a break is sent
> to the serial console.  I believe that later machines allow you to
> change the sequence to something less likely to occur (note, this
> quite a new feature iirc).  
> 
> One method of avoiding inadvertant breaks when the terminal is powered
> off is to put a resistor between the rx pin and dsr on the end of the
> cable that plugs into the sun.  The idea is to ensure the rx is pulled
> to the "idle" state if the power on the terminal goes away - in rs232
> idle happens to be a logic "high".
>  
-- 
Greg Matthews
iTSS Wallingford	01491 692445