[plug] pci modem (and serial and parallel ports)

[Jason Nicholls]

Hiya,

On Mon, Aug 07, 2000 at 08:55:15PM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> > but I've heard that if it's a PCI modem it's a
> > winmodem - because traditionally serial ports hang off the ISA bus, and
> > even with Pentium mainboards (and newer) even though the ports are
> > on-board, they are physically connected to the ISA bus - and there is no
> > standard (yet) for serial ports on the PCI bus, so Linux does not know
> > where to look.
> 
> A WinModem, or "software modem" has at least part of the modem work done
> by the CPU. This can mean "a little bit" like doing the management
> things (see rings, lift hook, send codes to DTMF chip etc) or "Host
> Based" in which the actual bulk signal-processing arithmetic is done by
> the CPU. Bletch. This normally uses the horsepower equivelent of a
> Pentium 90 under Windows, and doesn't work very reliably. Hence the
> term, _Win_Modem. (-:

Part of the unreliability here is because of functionallity implemented
through software. This software isn't going to be as thorougly used/tested as
the biggest chipsets used in most (ext) modems. Often the software doesn't 
implement many standard command set features (such as the +ms commands to 
control min/max connection speeds). These types of commands can help a great 
deal in situation where you have troubled connections relating to poor or
strange line conditions.


Later,

Jason Nicholls
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