John, at 08:30 on Jul 10 1997, you wrote to Rick Collins ...
RC>> Absolutely _wrong_.  A 286 can handle data much much faster 
RC>> than a 33.6 modem can hope to provide it.  Even a 4 Mhz 8086 
RC>> has no problem with the data rate from a 33.6.  Problems 
RC>> with those speeds on older hardware is usually correctable 
RC>> by replacing the non-buffered UART (either an 8250 or 16450) 
RC>> with a buffered UART like the 16550.
JA> That's interesting, because my roomie, who's a TECH for a 
JA> local computer store, told me that our old Commodore Colt 
JA> (an old 8086 CPU machine) would not be capable of handling 
JA> anything more than a 14.4 modem....even with a 16550 UARTed 
JA> serial port.
JA> Please forgive this question, but what are your 
JA> qualifications to discuss whether or not a certain CPU can 
JA> handle a 14.4? I mean no disrespect, simply I don't know 
JA> you, and I came in late on this discussion. :)
Maybe this limitation is peculiar to the Commodore Colt.  In the early '80s I 
used to successfully run the serial port (8250) in my 4MHz 8088 based XT at 
57600 under DOS based comms apps with NO dropout.
David
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