[KLUG Hardware] Win (Software) Modems

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 2002-04-29 at 17:31, Adam Williams wrote:
> Modems are better than HSP telco interfaces (winmodems) for many of the
> same reasons that SCSI is better than IDE.  The device can do more
> itself, leaving your processor alone so it can do crazy things like run
> application processes.  Only in the case of HSP the situation is much
> more extreme than the SCSI vs. IDE scenario.

Actually, that's not a good comparison.

But basically "software" v. "hardware" means:
  A.  The main CPU is taxied/tasked with extra overhead
  B.  It requires an OS-specific driver of additional complexity

Even looking past A, B is the killer.  And most OEMs just "buy" someone
else's implementation anyway, and then do a few customizations.  One of
these years OEMs will learn to work together, help fund a "general"
library which they all use, then write a small little driver that just
interfaces to it.

Damn, I guess we already have something of the sort under Linux, eh? 
Too bad OEMs don't give a flying fuck.  You'd figure they'd wish Linux
caught on for pure development sanity sake.

-- Bryan

-- 
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---------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan J. Smith, SmithConcepts, Inc.   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
Engineers and IT Professionals     http://www.SmithConcepts.com