*BSD News Article 6213


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!nwnexus!wjones
From: wjones@halcyon.com (Warren Jones)
Subject: Re: The ultimate 386BSD machine? (FAQ fodder)
Message-ID: <1992Oct8.081942.27776@nwnexus.WA.COM>
Keywords: 386BSD
Sender: sso@nwnexus.WA.COM (System Security Officer)
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. (206) 455-3505
References: <1992Oct8.072512.8700@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 08:19:42 GMT
Lines: 20

earle@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Greg Earle - Gainfully Unemployed) writes:

>- Serial ports; more trivial, but can I assume nowadays that I don't have to
>  ask for NS16550AFN chips, and will get them by default?  (I will want to run
>  PPP at 38400 baud over them ... )

I can at least answer your trivial question.
I was recently shopping, like you, for a 386BSD system,
and was surprised to find that NS16550AFN chips are quite rare,
even in what I had considered top-of-the line name brand systems.
I don't think I ever found them in generic clones.
The question of replacing the 8250 with a 16550AFN turned out
to be a useful method for weeding out dealers.
(Quite a few didn't even understand the question.)
It you have a demo system running windows 3.1,
you can use MSD (the Microsoft Diagnostic utility)
to find out what kind of UART's it has.
-- 
Warren Jones
<wjones@halcyon.com>