Message-ID: <268@houxl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-May-84 14:11:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxl.268
Posted: Tue May  8 14:11:46 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 9-May-84 02:35:36 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 28

[]

In the June issue of Analog Computing, there is a brief mention of a
Serial Bus Modem Adapter from Advanced Interface Devices, that can
be used to connect most modems and RS-232 devices to the
Atari over it's serial bus without an 850 interface module.  This was
in the new products section and had an accompanying picture showing what
looked like a cable, a manual, and software on floppy.
The Question: has anyone had any experience with this device and (as usual)
what was their experience with it.  It comes with software, but
is this just a device driver, or must a special program be used to utilize
the device (ie. for different baud rates and other configurations).

Also in that issue was a brief review of OSS SuperBasic cartidge.  OSS Super
cartidges uses bank switching within the cartidge (multiple ROMs software
selected and mapped to overlapping address spaces) to allow, for example, a
12K ROM that uses 8K of address space.  Any way the article said that the
cartidge was upward compatable with Atari Basic, and SIGNIFICANTLY faster.
The Question: has anyone had any experience with this device and (again)
what was their experience with it.  Also does anyone have execution speed
comparisons.

Replies can be sent to me or posted if deemed news worthy.!
I will summarize and post [assuming I get replies.  This news group has
been kind of dead, but that's another article].

					Owen Alexander
					houxl!oaa
  
  

Message-ID: <96@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-May-84 13:48:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.96
Posted: Fri May 11 13:48:23 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 13-May-84 09:02:41 EDT
References: <268@houxl.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 28

[squish]

    I just took a look at the item in the June Analog (mentioned in the orig
article), it's obviously just an Atrai serial bus connector to DB25 cable.  
What that means is that any device it is connected to is plugged directly into
the bus.  Not a good thing if you want to access a different device (like a 
disk drive).  An intelligent, non-Atari, device (like a Hayes modem) could 
cause severe problems for the "standard" Atari devices.
   It also means that special access techniques thru SIO are neccessary in
order to change the POKEY clock rate on the serial bus.  I'm sure that's what
the software on the included disk is for, but a little more is involved than
the average CIO device driver.  Anything which uses standard R: access will
probably work OK (as long as it doesn't access any other serial bus device),
but something making direct calls to SIO may be in trouble.  Using it for 
connecting a printer may not work because the printer would think everything 
coming across the bus was for it.  Unless their driver is very sophisticated 
mixing accesses to other devices my not be possible.  Hard to say.
   I think it's a good idea, I even considered rigging one up myself, but it
can't be considered a direct replacement for the 850.  Be sure to test it out
before buying.  
   All of this is pure conjecture, based solely on my knowledge of Atari  
hardware and software.  Hope it's been of some help.

Ron Hitchens         hitchens@ut-sally.UUCP
-------------------------------------------
[what's the current release date for Atari Unix?]