Hello Mike!

27 Nov 04 00:16, Mike Luther wrote to All:

 ML> Are there any full controller based PCI slot internal modems except
 ML> for the USR PCI internal, the Zoom PCI internal and the ActionTek PCI
 ML> internal products?

It's been a while back (1.5-2yrs) since I was on the same mission, so
pardon any changes to the "state of the union" since I was on a
similar quest, but I think you've identified the same chipsets that were
available then with your short list.  USR does their own chipsets that
(unsurprisingly) aren't found in anything but USR brand products.  As I
recall, both Zoom and Actiontech were using the (Agere) Lucent Venus
chipset.

I was building a small form factor system to hopefully replace the DOS node
running the BBS, using the VIA Epia 6" square motherboard with
embedded everything (fanless CPU, LAN, video, sound, etc).  This gave me
one more limitation that wasn't met by any on your list: it had to be low
profile, as my baby boxen couldn't accept a full-height PCI.  Zoom's board
was definitely all of the standard height and wouldn't work for me. 
Actiontech's appeared from unreliable website pictures to possibly be a
half to three-quarters of an inch shorter but I had no luck actually
finding the specific model available.

Fortunately I did find a couple of no-name options that were also Lucent
Venus-based and got =really= lucky and found one of the two on the shelf at
Frye's.  I had to insist on opening it in the store to physically read the
chipset when I saw the "actual content may vary" disclaimer next
to the photo on the box.  It was also half the price of the name brands, in
addition to being half the height.  What I ended up with was
called a "Pragmatic I56LVP-F30".  I even managed to Google up a
guy that had gotten it working in his Linux box and he was even nice enough
to pull it out of his machine, take geometric dimensions, and shoot me a
web-cam shot of it laying on top of (but not covering) a dollar
bill.

Ultimately, I did get the modem installed and tested in both answer and
originate modes (even booting/running DOS from a USB memory key), but never
stabilized the QEMM setup enough to put the baby box in production without
fear of dreaded "exception 13" halts.  I'm sure it could be
ironed out with an intensive mapping session of include/excludes for the
"integrated everything" devices, but I am both rusty and
time-constrained and simply haven't done it.

Sorry that this probably doesn't help, if you assign the line-condition
handling property to the controller chipset, since I'm fairly certain that
it is the same as one you already have.  My own limited experience would
tend to assign more of the blame to the firmware, as I have seen radical
shifts in behavior (positive or negative) come from flash upgrades than
changing modems. I doubt that there has been any new introductions and
expect that the controller-based modem is headed the way of the dodo.  Even
the Linux boyz are starting to get the hang of creating their own software
to translate "winmodem" into a "linmodem". If
controller-based wasn't a Linux requirement also, there wouldn't be enough
market niche to justify continuing to produce them.

.\\ike

--- GoldED 2.50+