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From: Jason K. Fritcher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, Magic wrote:
> > Richard Malcolm-Smith wrote:
> > > Magic wrote:
> > >
> > > > > does anyone have an idea what could be going wrong with this set up?
> > > >
> > > > Yes. Your expert knows sod-all about the PCI bus and video cards. This
> > > > is a common problem with PCI sound cards, and is actually caused by
> > > > video card drivers.
> > >
> > > It also aflicts ISA cards.
> >
> > It does? How very annoying... I thought it was just the PCI bus that was
> > effected. I nthat case, could a similar problem be caused by an AGP card?
>
> The ISA bus is typically chained to the end of the PCI bus with a PCI->ISA
> bridge. Basically the ISA bus appears as just another device to the PCI bus.
> Anything that consumes all of the PCI buses bandwidth for a long period of
> time, or anything device that stays in its IRQ handler for too long will
> disrupt communication on the bus.
>
> The AGP bus is typically runs parallel to the PCI bus, so they don't affect
> each other.
>
> > > And software modems, which will usually disconnect. After all they are
> > > only a fancy soundcard that connects to a phone line.
> >
> > How do you tell the difference between a hardware and software modem? Will
> > they both suffer?
>
> Anything that is labelled as a "Winmodem" or compatible with only MS
> Windows.
>
> Only the winmodem will suffer from bus disruptions. The modem now relies on
> the system's cpu to generate the carrier signal that keeps the modems
> connected. If a bus disruption occurs, thay carrier gets disrupted and the
> modems disconnect.
>
> With a normal modem, all of the signal processing and carrier generation is
> done on the modem itself and all the system cpu has to do is send the modem
> the data to transfer. If a bus disruption occurs, the modems stay connected,
> but stop transmitting or receiving data.
>
> Jason K. Fritcher
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I know this isn't strictly speaking an MD query, but, is it safe to assume any
ISA device, in my case I'm thinking about my modem is a proper hardware
modem and has all the necessary stuff on board and just needs to be fed
whatever data every so often? Its a v90 modem and I always get a 50kbps
or so link which is sustained, and theres no mention of WinModem or other
such nonscence.
I'd hate to think I'd bought something which ate CPU time whenever in use!
Cheers,
PrinceGaz -> Long live Linux, I might install one of my three versions burnt
onto CD-R soon (Caldera, Mandrake, RedHat). If only there was an .iso
image of SuSE or Slackware I could download...
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