-=> Quoting Lawrence Mintz to Robert Osborne <=-
 > Ok.  If I have had an internal modem with a 8250 UART
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What Robert has is an "emulated" UART - all internals have
that form because internals interface with a computer's
parallel bus directly - externals interface with a computer's
external serial comport interface.  So conversion from a
parallel to serial datastream is needed for externals
(which is what a real UART (such as 8250, 16450, 16550 series does)
 > chip would it do
 > any good to replace it with one of the others?  Such
 > as a 16550?
No.  8250 UARTs (emulated on modems) are to be found on
modems who's line speed is not much greater than 14k4
 > Or are you better just going out and buying a more modern
 > modem?
Yes!
 LM> If it has a real 8250 UART chip,
It hasn't
 LM> and *not* an emulation buried in a much larger
 LM> multifunction chip,
It has
 LM> then replacing it with a 16550 will provide the
 LM> ability to handle strings of characters with a single interrupt.
It won't I'm afraid...
 LM> However, if the internal
 LM> modem *has* an 8250, it probably can't operate at a data rate that
 LM> would make any real use of the performance improvements that are built
 LM> into a 16550.
For internals, "emulated" is the key here.  MSD won't spot the difference
between "emulated" and "real", because to the computer both are seen as the
same.  Comm programs (such as Terminate) which offer their own form of
Fossil interface, and seperate Fossil programs (such as BNU, X00, etc
needed for most mailers) will see your computer's real UART, and an internal
modem's emulated UART in the same way.  They won't spot the difference either
 LM> So I would recommend buying a new modem instead.
Yes!
rgdZ
Richard
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