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List:       openbsd-tech
Subject:    Re: sun serial cards?
From:       chuck <chuck () Yerkes ! com>
Date:       1998-10-23 20:55:38
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Frankly, the most effective way to do this might be to buy a
cheapo 586/133 or so and get a "smart" multi-serial port card.
I picked up a 16 port card a while ago for $200.  $300 for a
cheapo or used PC with at least a 300Meg disk and 32MBRam and
you're running for less than most 4 port SBUS serial cards.

Or check out a terminal server and hang it off of an extra ethernet
for dial up users (and secure that subnet!).  Might be cheaper
or similiar for far better performance.

The SBUS issue seems to be that there is an imaginary $500
surcharge just for SBUS and cards tend to be really expensive.
I find two serial/one parallel cards from aurora for around
$600.  For this I can buy a PC with at least that.

The on-board serial ports on most real workstations (ie. not a
PC labelled "workstation") beat the hell out of the processor
for interrupts.  On Sparc 2's, DecStations and others, I'd note
around 19.2k interrupts on machines with 19.2 modems in hard
use.  3rd party cards usually buffer a fair amount and offload
that.  Many PC cards that I know used a small processor to do
the hard work allowing 64 modems to run on a 486/50 adequately
(BBS type).

chuck

Quoting wob@luvewe.ops.us.eglobe.com (wob@luvewe.ops.us.eglobe.com):
> hiya,
> I have a sparc 20 that I need to hang 8 modems off of for
> dialup stuff, can you guys reccomend me a serial interface
> that works well w/ openbsd?
> 
> thanks,
> robert

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