From: brown@chinchilla.ir.ucf.edu (Bill Brown)
Subject: Re: How to increase speed of communications in OS/2 2.0
Keywords: os2 waffle 165
Organization: University of Central Florida -- Bilbo's Last Sanctuary...
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 03:07:59 GMT

In article <4ewqVB16w165w@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca> frampton@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca (Steve Frampton) writes:
>From: frampton@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca (Steve Frampton)
>Subject: Re: How to increase speed of communications in OS/2 2.0
>Keywords: os2 waffle 165
>Date: 13 Dec 92 23:57:50 GMT
>Steve Frampton <frampton@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca> writes:
>
>> However, the CPS transfer times for Waffle have fallen *dramatically* -- 
>> about 1/2 of the way it was under DOS!  This is even with Waffle running 
>> in the foreground as the only application.
>> 
>> I have disabled idle detection for this application, and have tried this 
>> with and without the X00 Fossil program (better results under Fossil, but 
>> not much) to no avail.  This is going to get expensive for me because I 
>> get my mail and majority of my news via long distance!
>> 
>> I am surprised at how slow this is, considering having Waffle run in the 
>> foreground and alone!
>
>Here, as promised, is my follow-up on this subject of improving the
>speed of communications under OS/2 2.0.
>
>I received *tons* of responses to this query, so much that I had to
>resort to a cold, unappreciative-looking "form-letter" type thank you
>addressed to all en-masse.  Please forgive!
>
>The responses boiled down to several points:
>
>     - Install the CSD.
>Hmmm.  I'm not sure whether I should do this or not.  I had a friend
>take a look via FTP, and he reported that the CSD consists of over 15
>diskettes worth of material!  With the next release of OS/2 imminent,
>perhaps it is worth my while to be patient?
>
>     - Install a 16550AFN (buffered UART) chip to increase throughput.
>I went out and purchased a 16550AN (notice, no 'F' -- is that a problem?)
>and installed it.  To date I have noticed *no* improvement.  This may
>(hopefully) be due to requiring a new COMM driver (see below).

This is probably your problem.  Although the 16550AN has a FIFO buffer (a 16 
byte queue to prevent character overrun under high speed serial rates), it's 
completely broke.  The 16550AFN is the fixed version of this chip. If the OS/
2 comm driver supports it as well as most claim it does, this feature has 
the effect of cutting serial interrupts by a factor of up to 16.  This is 
important when you want to do high speed communication when OS/2 only allows 
1000 interrupts/sec.  Keep in mind, however, that the OS/2 DOS serial 
emulation still has to present each byte of data one character at a time 
to each DOS session, since the comm virtual device driver only emulates a 
16450 (I think.  It could even be only a an 8250). 

>
>     - Get an updated COMM driver.
>I am still waiting for the OS/2 version of unzip to arrive via ftpmail,
>then I shall be able to try the newest COMM driver out -- but preliminary
>results do not look promising!  I tried a driver called, '16550.SYS'
>and my system reported, 'IRQ is unavailable.  Driver was not loaded'
>(or something to this effect).  I was trying to use this driver for
>COM1 with an IRQ of 4.
>
>     - Use native OS/2 software.
>By far the best solution wherever available, however in my situation
>there is no equivalent OS/2 version of the application I wish to use.
>But I shall keep my eyes open to such a possibility.
>
>     - Make sure the following options are set (some require the CSD
>     upgrade.
>          COM_DIRECT_ACCESS         OFF
>          COM_HOLD                  ON
>          COM_SELECT                port number
>          HW_TIMER                  ON
>          DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION  ON
>          IDLE_SECONDS              60
>          IDLE_SENSITIVITY          100
>
>     - Turn v.42bis off for UUCICO sessions.
>The majority of UUCICO traffic is compressed news batches, compressed
>uuencoded material, etc.  Even though v.42bis is supposed to be smart
>enough to not make transfer times for already-compressed data even
>worse, in the case of UUCP-g it doesn't seem to work very well.
>
>     - Add one of the following lines to CONFIG.SYS:
>          CALL=C:\OS2\MODE.COM COM1:19200,N,8,1,,TO=OFF,XON=OFF,IDSR=ON,
>               ODSR=ON,OCTS=ON,DTR=ON,RTS=HS,BUFFER=AUTO
>
>          or
>
>          RUN=C:\OS2\MODE.COM COM1:19200,N,8,1,,IDSR=ON,ODSR=ON,OCTS=OFF,
>              DTR=ON,RTS=ON,BUFFER=AUTO
>
>I don't know which one is correct, nor why they are slightly different,
>except that in my situation, my system states something to the effect
>of, "Buffer option not supported by this device." -- a problem which,
>I hope, is related to the need for a new COMM driver.

I assuming that the OS/2 comm driver can detect the difference between the 
16550Ax and the 16550AFN and therefore not support the FIFO buffer, as it 
doesn't with the 8250 or 16450.  That would explain this message. 

>
>All the above, in a nut-shell, is basically all I have learned.  I am
>unfortunately experiencing much the same poor performance problems, but
>I am going to apply the new COMM driver, and wait for the new release of
>OS/2 before I start to get desparate.
>
>Thanks to all who responded!
>
>+--------+< Unabashed Shabba Ranks Fan! >+------+--------------------+
>| Steve Frampton - frampton@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca | Steve Frampton     |
>| I collect postcards!  If you send me one from | 501-A Princess St. |
>| your area, I'll send one in return.  Send to >| Kingston, Ontario  |
>| (Don't forget both email and mailing address) | CANADA   K7L 1C3   |
>+-----------------------------------------------+--------------------+

Hope this helps,

Bill Brown                           Archive Software Division
Internet: brown@chinchilla.ir.ucf.edu
MCIMail via Internet: Bill_Brown%Archive_Software_Division@mcimail.com
Don't speak for Maynard, Archive, Conner, or whoever's buying us today.