HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dherman@cape.UWaterloo.ca (Dennis Herman)
Subject: Re: Internal 14.4K Modems
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 17:16:52 GMT

I have done a bit of homework on the 14.4K FAX/modem business and came up
with a Zoom 14.4K S/R Internal Fax Modem. It is priced about 10% higher
than the Boca but does come with a buffered 16550A UART and some reasonabl
software (MTEZ (Telix look alike) and WinFAX lite). Zoom's stuff appears  
to be as hardy as the big names USR and Practical Peripherals but doesn't
put much into marketing. PC Magazine wrote up a good review on a large
number of V32bis modems and I think Zoom was hard to beat for the price. 
They come with a 7 year warranty ( who knows what you will be using in 
7 years ). I haven't had a single problem with it and have used it alot 
for communications and FAXes.                     

If you are looking for trouble free high speed communications under     
Windows you'll be lookin' a long time. Because of windows cooperative 
multitasking and the some of the poor device drivers,interrupts can be
turned off for more than 4 milliseconds. The buffer on the 16550A is only
16 bytes or about 4 milliseconds long at high communications speeds. 
THerefore you will more often than not run into data overrun problems
at high speeds under Windows. Best to compress the files at the source
or transfer pre ZIPped files. Anything over 1100 char/sec under windows
seems to cause retries using Zmodem on a 33 Mhz 486. Better yet do your
high speed data transfers under DOS. 
In article <1992Dec14.214713.15837@nosc.mil> mitch@nosc.mil (Ray Mitchell) writes:
>
>I'm in the process of buying a 14.4K internal modem and need some guidance.
>The brands I have had recommended include Intel, USR, Complete Comp,
>Practical Comp, MACS, and Boca.  Excuse misspellings because all of these
>have been phone discussions.  Price is an object but it doesn't outweigh
>reliability.  A FAX feature is desirable but not a must if the price is
>right.  The best price I found was on a Boca 14.4K FAX modem but one
>source told me they do not run reliably at 14.4K because they lack a
>UART, and one can't be added.
>
>Any and all recommendations, insights, and horror stories will be
>appreciated.  Please get technical about various features, problems,
>etc.  Please e-mail.
>
>Thanks in advance
>Ray Mitchell
>mitch@nosc.mil


Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.os.os2.misc
From: hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl (Harm Hanemaaijer)
Subject: Slow data transfer with IDE drive (WD 2170) 
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 15:12:31 GMT
Organization: Utrecht University, Dept. of Computer Science
Keywords: WD 170M drive, even lower troughput 

In <1992Dec14.140022.18752@cs.ruu.nl> I write:

>A friend of mine recently picked up a 170M Western Digital Caviar 2170 hard 
>drive (which seems to be a fairly new model). Testing its speed with
>Norton SI (assuming it produces realistic figures), the average access time
>is indeed very small (11ms as advertised) but the data transfer speed is only
>~470K/s, as opposed to ~980K/s for a Seagate ST3144a (15ms access), when tested 
>in the same system as a single drive. Even an old Seagate 40M MFM drive seems
>to have a higher data transfer speed. 
>
>The data transfer figure is not commonly advertised, the access time is. 
>Does the WD just have a low transfer speed (compensated for many purposes by
>its small access time), or is there something wrong here?

I've not received any replies except for forwarding requests.

In the system in which the drive is actually used (generic AT with noname,
no-jumper IDE controller), the data transfer speed is only 270K/s, which is
considerably less than the old MFM controller and drive (now dead) that were
previously present. 

Does anyone have a clue as to what is going on? Can it be because of the IDE 
controller, or a combination of controller and drive (WD Caviar 2170)? The
fact remains that the WD is twice as slow when tested in the same system, as
described above.

Any replies are greatly appreciated (if you post, please mail a copy also)

--
hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl
From: Jim_Johnson@abcd.Houghton.MI.US (Jim Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: AMD rubbish????
Distribution: world
Date: 18 Dec 92 23:10:32 EST
Organization: Amiga BitSwap Central Dispatch

In a message dated Fri 18 Dec 92 10:33, Reza@magellan.ae.utexas.edu (alirez
wrote:
>
>What 486sx has the same performance as a 386-40?  My gut feeling is that
>a 486-sx-25 is about even with a 386-40.  

 R> Right you are!  In the December 92 issue of Byte magazine there is an
 R> article on head to head comparisons between various CPU's including
 R> the Intel 486SX/25 and the AMD 386/40.  In virtually all the
 R> benchmarks,
 R> the AMD was right at or just a hair below the performance level of a
 R> 486SX/25.  I would imagine the 486SX/33 would be considerably faster
 R> than the AMD because of the faster clock rate.

If you read the article carefully, you might notice that with a "typical"
full mix of applications, the AMD 386/40 is only a fraction slower than a
486DX-33 system.

I work for an OEM clone manufacturer. We have found that unless you are
running applications that are CPU intensive such as CAD or very complex
number crunching the AMD 386/40 is a better value than the 486DX-33. This
is due to DMA speed (40MHz vs. 25MHz or 33MHz). Database type software in
particular is assisted by the 40Mhz clock speed. On the otherhand the
486DX-50MHz blows away the competition. We sell 486SX systems, but only if
the customer insists on them. So far as we are concerned, this is a
marketing scheme to rip off the customer.

-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

jim_johnson@abcd.houghton.mi.us
from Calumet, Michigan, USA -the world's former copper mining capital, 
located on Lake Superior and home to America's newest National Park,
** The Keweenaw National Historic Park **
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: hartzman@kilroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Les Hartzman)
Subject: FastMicro:  Any experiences?
Followup-To: hartzman@kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov
Keywords: FastMicro
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 17:45:09 GMT

Has anyone had any experiences with the computer mail-order company called
FastMicro based in Phoenix?

It looks like they have some decent prices, and I like the on-site support
that is included for their systems.

Thanks in advance.

Les



-- 
Les Hartzman                hartzman@kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov
Jet Propulsion Laboratory   M/S 238-528    (818) 354-5964
4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena,  CA.  91109
Organization: Sophomore, Physics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.mac.hardware
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 00:04:08 -0500 
From: Faisal Nameer Jawdat <fj05+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Poor Technical Support
	<1992Dec16.062507.10276@seas.gwu.edu>
Distribution: na

willson@seas.gwu.edu (Stephen R. Willson) writes:
> Sounds like bad technical support.  If MUD is crashing machines left and
> right, it shouldn't be on machines intended primarily for students to do
> work.  And on top of that, the bozos who leave it running in the first
> place should have had their accounts revoked.  I don't see any real

Are they running the mud on the macs, or are they using the mac to
connect to the mud?  If they're using the mac to connect to the mud,
there probably isn't a damn thing they can do to keep people from
connecting to the mac from the mud without removing the communications
on the systems.

-- faisal jawdat                  | "Certainly the game is rigged.
email: fj05+@andrew.cmu.edu       | Don't let that stop you;
if mail handler barfs             | if you don't bet, you can't win." 
fj05@andrew.cmu.edu               |        -Lazarus Long
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: med50003@nusunix1.nus.sg (WANSAICHEONG KHIN-LIN)
Subject: ViewRx by Kingston Tech
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 05:41:01 GMT


Does anyone have information about this board? Is it good or bad? Is it
quicker than Tseng based VGA boards? Will it do 800x600 at 256 colours?
16.7 million? Does it cost a bomb? Does its drivers work? well?

Wondering,

gervais

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: syny@crux3.cit.cornell.edu (R Craig Stevenson)
Subject: Wait State/Cache/70vs80ns Memory/386-33dx Questions
Organization: Cornell Information Technologies
Date: 16 Dec 92 00:06:35 GMT

I have a 386-33dx w/ 4Mb of 80ns 1MB simms and OPTI/AMI ROM bios
w/ a 64K cache.

Currently, I have to set my BIOS for 1 wait state read (0 wait write).
If I set it to 0 wait state read, then the machine will not boot and
hangs just following POST.  I assume this is due to having too slow of
memory.

My question is, if I upgrade to 70ns 1MB SIMMS, will I be able to run
at 0 wait state for memory reads or will I still need the 1 wait state?
If so, given I have a 64k cache and generally run under windows, how
much difference would this make?

A different question: what is the effect of the cache if the access to
memory is 0 wait states?  Does the cache make it any faster or is it
only improve speed when 1 or more wait states if involved?  If it is
faster, why?

Thanks.
-- Craig
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: What's the deal? My chip says "SX-25"; Norton says "SX-33"
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 19:22:41 GMT

In <1grur8INNkg2@savoy.cc.williams.edu> 93gke@williams.edu (oldwanda) writes:

>I ordered a 486SX-33 motherboard, and when it came I couldn't help but
>notice the chip has printed on it "486SX-25". I was quite pissed until
>I double checked with Norton's SI (and others), and it said "486SX,
>33Mhz". Whats going on? I assume it is a 33, but then why the mis-
>labeling? Are all SX-33's mismarked in this way?

Sounds to me like what you've got is a 486SX-25 that your system
builder has installed and 'pushed' to 33 MHz.  Go back to being pissed
and contact your vendor.

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: Local bus IDE or SCSI?
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 20:15:40 GMT

In <CARL.92Dec7114825@atlantis.Cayman.COM> carl@Cayman.COM (Carl Heinzl) writes:


>>Oh, I don't know.  IDE seems to make more sense for a VL slot.  Why
>>have a SCSI controller plugged into a VL slot that it can't possibly
>>use the bandwidth of?

>Everyone seems to be forgetting about caching controllers.  If you
>have a controller sitting out there with 4 meg, 8 meg (or even more)
>then it can certainly go quite a bit faster than any SCSI II
>limitation.  In fact, I'd bet that it can probably go just about as
>fast as main memory (since it uses exactly the same type of memory!).

Assuming, of course, that you're getting cache hits with the
controller.  Under most multitasking OS's, it's a lot harder to get
those cache hits because multiple stuff is running at once.  The head
tends to get to bounce around the drive, and the cache tends to get to
read stuff over and over, just as if the cache is not there.  The
caching built into the file systems of multitasking OS's tends to be a
better win than a caching controller, and a caching controller may
actually slow you down.



-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
From: nathan@hal.COM (Nathan Hoover)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: SpeedStar 24X and mouse in box
Date: 17 Dec 92 18:44:34 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: HAL Computer Systems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: rousseau.hal.com

In article <BzEwv0.7Es@encore.com>, mpalmer@encore.com (Mike Palmer) writes:
|> y55j@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Mike Duttweiler) writes:
|> 
|> >Anyone having luck getting their mouse to work in a windowed DOS application
|> >using the Diamond SpeedStar 24X in 800X600 mode?  If so, any suggestions why
|> 
|> My M/S and Logitech mouses work fine with my 24X.  

I've had no problems with  "mouse in a box" either using the 24X.

-- 
  Nathan Hoover    nathan@hal.com  408-379-7000x1331
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,alt.cd-rom
From: eddy@einstein.et.tudelft.nl (J.G.E. Olk)
Subject: Re: Problems with Philips CM50 CDROM player on fast PCs
Organization: Delft University of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 09:59:02 GMT

eddy@einstein.et.tudelft.nl (J.G.E. Olk) writes:

>Anyone got a solution to get the Philips CM50 CDROM player and the
>proprietary interface card working on a fast machine?

>The problem I experience with it is that reading a CDROM does not work
>on all machines (I tried quite a few), the audio control stuff does however.
>Especially on 486 machines (ISA or EISA) the CM50 won't read CDROMs,
>disabling (all) caches doesn't help. On a 386DX/33 it works more or
>less, although there are occasional read errors and, strangely enough,
>lowering the CPU clock speed to 8MHz also puts the CM50 out of order.
>On a 4.77/9.54 MHz V20 XT it works like a charm and switching the CPU
>clock doesn't give any troubles.

>I'm almost sure there is a problem in the PHILIPS.SYS device driver,
                                           ^^^^^^^^^^^-> CDROM.SYS
>most likely with the DMA stuff to read the CDROM. I suspect there must
>be some sort of relation between the CPU speed and the DMA transfer
>speed. The PHILIPS.SYS I use is version 1.03, Oct. 1991. 
            ^^^^^^^^^^^-> CDROM.SYS
>Perhaps someone knows of a newer version?

Whoops! Major typos. Really need those holidays :-)

>Furthermore, I'd be very happy if someone could provide me with info
>on the properietary interface so I can write my own DOS/Linux device
>driver.

>Thanks,
>- Eddy
>-- 
>\  Eddy Olk                          Section Computer Architecture         \
>/  email: eddy@duteca.et.tudelft.nl  Department of Electrical Engineering  /
>\  phone: +31-15-785021              Delft University of Technology        \
>/                                    The Netherlands                       /
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: john@fl_gator.b17a.ingr.com (John Eason)
Subject: Installing Maxtor 7213a questions
Reply-To: john@fl_gator.b17a.ingr.com (John Eason)
Organization: "Intergraph Corp, Huntsville AL"
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 16:58:30 GMT

Hello,

  I just bought and installed a Maxtor 7213 IDE drive and I'm a little confused.
   
  Being a very satisfied owner of a Maxtor 7120a I bought this drive expecting
  very similar results. I configured this drive as a slave (unsetting J20) and
  set my CMOS (AMI '90) to type 47, 683 cyl, 16 heads, 38 tracks. My CMOS reported
  a drive size of 204 instead of 213, the CMOS reported a drive size of 124
  instead of 120 for the 7120a. Also, after formatting the 7120 formatted out to
  about 127,000,000 bytes but the 7213a was only 212,600,000. I expected around
  237,000,000. If anyone who owns a 7213a (or anyone else for that matter) knows
  what their drive formatted out to I would appreciate the info...

Thanks in advance.

-- 
**********************************************
*     John S Eason                           *
*     Intergraph Corporation    GO GATORS    *
*     Huntsville, Alabama                    *
*                                            *
*     john@fl_gator.b17a.ingr.com            *
**********************************************
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: geirp@gandalf.uio.no (Geir Pedersen)
Subject: How to input through a gameport (was: Re: Help, Joystick values and 1280x1024)
To: olson%mydual.uucp@alliant.com
Organization: Center for Information Technology Services, University of Oslo,
	Norway
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 21:18:28 GMT


I intend to use the gameport to sense the state of some TTL level
signal sources. Each source will stay in one of the states in periods
ranging from a few seconds to a few houres. I have tried to connect
the sources to the button pins of the gameport, but no matter the
state of the input I am only able to read 0xff from the gameport
(inb(0x201)).

Reading you article I get the impression that the setup I have might
not be sufficient:

>
>                   +------------------ 2,10 One-Shots
>                 | o  #1 Button
>                 | o
>                   +------------------ 4,12 GND
>

This confuses me. What is actually ment by "one-shots"? 

Thanks,

Geir Pedersen.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: chyang@periphrasis.engin.umich.edu (Chung Hsiung Yang)
Subject: What is this thing about MAC System 7.0 OS For PCs?
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 14:20:06 EST
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor
Originator: chyang@periphrasis.engin.umich.edu


	Hi, I read recently somewhere that Apple is developing a
version of System 7.0 OS for Intel based Machines.  Does anyone
have any information on this.  What is this version of OS supposed
to do.  Run Mac softwares on PC?  Comment please.

- Chung Yang
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.mac.hardware,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Iskandar Taib)
Subject: Re: Where the mac really wins
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 21:32:02 GMT

In article <ByyAtr.GC2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> varney@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Bruce Varney) writes:

>	Interesting, but it doesn't prove much. I have experienced just the
>opposite trend here. When I work in the PC lab, I get very few questions,
>while working in the mac lab leaves me no time to sit down usually. I also
>find that the questions I get in the PC lab are more intelligent questions.
>I have never seen someone try to put 2 disks in one drive on a PC.

Yeah. And when that happens you quickly find out what Apple 
charges for replacement floppy drives (in the $400 region)
because the drive is ruined. Kaput.


-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iskandar Taib                          | The only thing worse than Peach ala
Internet: NTAIB@SILVER.UCS.INDIANA.EDU |    Frog is Frog ala Peach
Bitnet:   NTAIB@IUBACS                 !
From: ar961@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Duane Kaufman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Looking for info on Miniscribe 6053 Hard Drive
Date: 16 Dec 1992 19:18:54 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ar961@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Duane Kaufman)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Hello!

I'm looking for information (#Cyl, #Heads, WPC etc) for a Miniscribe 6053
Hard Drive.

Please respond by E-mail.

Thanks in advance!
-- 
                                                     TheSeeker
Duane Kaufman
Internet: dkaufman@vms.macc.wisc.edu
BitNet:   dkaufman@wiscmacc.BitNet        I looked under chairs...
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: wlsmith@valve.heart.rri.uwo.ca (Wayne Smith)
Subject: VESA  --> Defined (?) <--
Organization: (this space for rent)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:11:45 GMT


It seems like the cutting edge of "standards" takes about 2 or 3 years
to become common place.  I've seen a big increase in the use of the
term VESA within the last few months, and I thought I might quote from
the User's Guide for my Sigma Legend VGA user's guide (Sept. 1990)...

"Because the Sigma Legend supports the VESA (Video Engineering Standards
Association) standard for BIOS interface in extended modes, drivers for
the VESA standard are also supported."

Now unless the VESA standard includes elements of bus construction and
interface, it seems that VESA and "local bus video" are two different and
unrelated things.  A VESA compatible video card is one thing, while a
local bus video card is another.  I can't say that having an ISA bus
video card with VESA has been any great thing, especially with a standard
ET4000 chipset.  But maybe VESA becomes more important with the more 
"exotic" co-processed chipsets.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:33134 comp.sys.novell:10502 comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32:2438 comp.periphs.scsi:6059
From: westes@smurf.sti.com (Will Estes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.novell,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32,comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Comments On Maxtor LXT-535SY?
Date: 14 Dec 1992 13:37:53 -0800
Organization: Mail Group
NNTP-Posting-Host: smurf.sti.com

My company just picked up a few Maxtor LXT-535SY SCSI-2 drives.  Does
anyone have any experiences, good or bad, to report about the use of
these drives with UNIX (Sun SPARCStations in particular), PCs running
DOS/Windows/NT, or Netware/386?  Any comments are appreciated.

-- 
Will Estes		Internet: westes@netcom.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: ibe1109@draper.com (Ira Ekhaus)
Subject: Sony Mini CD or Philips DCC format for computer DATA?
Organization: Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 18:42:12 GMT

Hi,

my local audio store says that the new Sony miniCD holds 74 minutes  
of stereo audio and can be RECORDED onto. 

Now for 16 bit stereo  audio without compression that's
74*60*44100*2*2 =    783 216 000
take into account compression factor of (~10) and we're 
still talking over 70 Mbytes with a respectable transer rate.
The DCC's numbers are probably pretty similar.

Does anyone know of plans to use this format as a backup or
distribution format for computer data?
It seems like a good idea, what's up? 

thanks,

Ira
ekhaus@draper.com
Phone: 617 258 1109
Home : 617 484 6698
Draper Laboratories m.s. 7c
555 Technology Square
Cambridge , MA 
02139
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.mac.hardware,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
From: hjwulfso@unix.amherst.edu (Harris Wulfson)
Subject: Re: "Windoze" slow? Naah...Re: pc and mac: was RE: 486 and mac benchmarks
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.mac.hardware,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Organization: Amherst College
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 00:22:24 GMT

Jess M Holle (jess@gn.ecn.purdue.edu) wrote:

} 
} As far as new machines sold, the Mac is either in first or second place.
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This may be true in terms of market share, but if you count all manufacturers
of PC clones, Apple does not beat them. There is a premium on the Mac's
superiority, and most people just don't want to pay it. So they buy clones.


} 
} >    If the mac was so successful, why are so many mac software companies
} >porting over their apps to windows?
} 

     Because there is a huge market for PC software. 


--
Harris Wulfson
hjwulfson@amherst.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.mac.hardware