--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4C00004 Date: 04/07/98 From: MARK LEWIS Time: 12:16pm \/To: MIKE RUSKAI (Read 3 times) Subj: Motherboards and os/2 MR> Some senseless babbling from Jonathan Michaels to Mike Ruskai MR> on 04-04-98 00:31 about Motherboards and os/2... MR >> For example, with Java benchmarks I've done myself, my speed is MR >> very much faster than 200MHz Pentium Pro machines (using Windows MR >> NT). JM>> i can find easier ways to cripple a machine than that. MR> You're suggesting that Intel is somehow conspiring with the MR> writer of the JVM to make Pentium Pro machines appear slower MR> than Pentium II machines? no... he's saying that putting Winwhatever on a machine is crippling it OB-) )\/(ark * Origin: (1:3634/12) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00000 Date: 04/08/98 From: GEORGE WHITE Time: 08:23am \/To: ROY J. TELLASON (Read 3 times) Subj: Switching voltage regula Hi Roy, You wrote to me: RJT> GW> In a switching regulator the controlling element is a compound RJT> GW> of two devices, a transistor, FET or thyristor used as a switch RJT> GW> and an inductor. RJT>Except that you can do this sort of thing with no RJT>inductors, using capacitors as charge storage devices. RJT>Look at the ICL7660 (?) chip for an example (I hope I'm RJT>remembering that number right) or any number of Maxim RJT>parts, that are designed to do this on small basis. You _can_ do it with capacitors (I have, to generate a negative rail for op-amps in a commercial design and Intel do (did) to generate negative rails in their ROMS) but for the systems we're considering in PCs it'll either be linear or inductive, capacitive versions don't preovide enough power. RJT> GW> The variation of the on/off ratio of the switch, in conjunction RJT> GW> with the inductor is used to control the amount of charge (== RJT> GW> power) transferred from the supply to the load. RJT>Aren't there also units which vary the frequency, rather RJT>than the pulse width? I seem to remember both kinds being RJT>mentioned in the literature. You can vary the effective on/off ratio either by changing the frequency or, more often, the mark/space ratio at a fixed frequency. RJT>This is drifting a bit off the topic here, but if you like RJT>we can take it up in the fido ELECTRONICS echo... Yes, we'd better end the thread now... Sorry, I don't think the ELECTRONICS echo makes it to Region 25 :-( George * SLMR 2.1a * Wastebasket: Something to throw things near. --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: DoNoR/2,Woking UK (44-1483-717905) (2:440/4) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00001 Date: 04/08/98 From: MIKE RUSKAI Time: 11:00pm \/To: FRED SPRINGFIELD (Read 3 times) Subj: redirecting LPT1 Some senseless babbling from Fred Springfield to Mike Ruskai on 06 Apr 98 09:49:00 about redirecting LPT1... MR> I would like to redirect LPT1 to a network printer. Is this MR> possible? FS> Check the SPOOL command in the OS/2 Command Reference--and see if FS> that will help. That's only good for redirecting to another device. Network printers are paths. Quentin showed me the way to do it, though, which works perfectly. Mike Ruskai SA/AG #1106 thanny@home.com ... Microsoft: To badly go where more clever people have avoided going. --- Renegade v05-11 Exp * Origin: The Licking Factory, OS/2 in NJ! (732)815-3146 (1:107/634) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00002 Date: 04/07/98 From: LYNN NASH Time: 03:31am \/To: ANDREW GRILLET (Read 3 times) Subj: Motherboards and os/2 AG>Hi Lynn, -=> On 22 Mar 98 00:06:00 Lynn Nash said to Jonathan Michaels <=- LN> K6 is from AMD by the way. It is a very good chip but I worry if AMD LN> can hold the line. They just reported again, for another quarter, LN> that they are still losing money on each chip that they ship, due LN> of manufacturing yield problems. Their bail out deal for IBM to make LN> chips for them is still months away. Intel on the otherhand says LN> their yields are better than planned. Seeing blood, Intel has LN> announced a 20 percent price decrease on most of their chips. If AMD LN> has to reduce their prices another 20 percent and they are losing LN> money at the current levels, big trouble is brewing for them. It is LN> already bad enough that their credit rating was lowered last week. AG> AG>However, AMD are major manufacturers of other types of chip than just AG>CPUs, like EPROM, memory drivers, buffers, drivers, gates and PALs. AG>They are often the preferred supplier of these parts, on grounds of AG>quality. Yep, I used to design with their line for years, all the way back to their 2901 bit slices. They always made solid products. Can't say I cared much for those early versions of PALASM though. AG>They may well be capable of sustaining a loss indefinitely on CPUs if they AG>want. (Perhaps retaining the product to keep their chip designers in the AG>leading edge). No, they said six months ago that they could no longer support the corporation on sales of their other products alone. I think that they have only had one profitable quarter in the last 5. They currently have a 400 million loan coming due and have indicated that they would have to go out and secure some more cash. That kind of double talk really sounds like using one credit card to pay the bill on the other to me. That is why their lowered credit rating was a concern to the market, because the cost of money would be higher for them. Their stock rebounded some in the last couple of weeks on the news that yields had improved and the new deals with with Compaq and IBM. The market is hoping that they can get by this in a few more quarters. While the current financial situation is kind of grim they are denying insider rumors that they are looking to sell a 25 percent stake in the company. Serious rumors like that normally only surface if at least the idea was quietly floated by someone. The same thing happened with DEC before they started their massive asset sell off. AG>Having said that, I have no idea what proportion of their turnover AG>derives from which product. I just specify their PALs at work. I imagine that is a market where they are still the intel of the bunch. --Lynn * SLMR 2.1a * The elephant is the only animal with four knees. --- DB 1.39/004485 * Origin: The Diamond Bar BBS, San Dimas CA, 909-599-2088 (1:218/1001) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00003 Date: 04/07/98 From: KEVIN JOHNSON Time: 05:48am \/To: AUGUST ABOLINS (Read 3 times) Subj: Mustek HT-800 anyone? AA> I would like to probe my fellow OS/2 users if anyone among you has the Mustek AA> HT-800 handheld greyscale scanner. AA> I lost the installed software several years ago due an hdd problem, and I've AA> misplaced the original diskettes in the process of moving to another ity. AA> AA> I would appreciate it if anyone can help and send me a copy of the software AA> and drivers. AA> I had contacted Mustek about 2 years ago (upon discovering the hdd problem and AA> the missing diskettes) and they were unable to point me to a source for the AA> necessary software. Hi, Mustek maintains a download area for all their products at their website. www.mustek.com, all identified by the various model numbers. Good luck! * We need female soldiers like we need pregnant men! --- RoseRdr/2 1.00 P005248 --- QScan/PCB v1.17b / 01-0313 * Origin: Encode Online Orillia,Ont.705-327-7629 (1:229/107) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00004 Date: 04/06/98 From: FRED SPRINGFIELD Time: 09:49am \/To: MIKE RUSKAI (Read 3 times) Subj: redirecting LPT1 MR> I would like to redirect LPT1 to a network printer. Is this MR> possible? Check the SPOOL command in the OS/2 Command Reference--and see if that will help. Regards, Fred Springfield Plymouth, MN --- * KWQ/2 1.2i * Quality--you know it when you see it. --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 * Origin: The Warehouse BBS (612) 767-2966 (1:282/115.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00005 Date: 03/31/98 From: JONATHAN DE BOYNE POLLARD Time: 01:08pm \/To: BOB BAINBRIDGE (Read 3 times) Subj: Installing Warp 4 BB> OS/2 will interrogate the actual hardware via the IBM1S506.ADD driver BB> and if you add a /V parameter it will show bios geometry, actual BB> geometry, and geometry being used. I haven't traced completely through the source yet, but as far as I can see from what I have looked at so far the values in Act ("actual") are what are reported to the higher layers of OS/2, the values in I13 ("INT 13h") are what were found by the OS/2 boot loader when it interrogated INT 13h (which it oes before loading the kernel, so that information as to what disc drives the IOS thinks are present is available to device drivers, so that they in turn can align their configurations with that of the BIOS), the values in CMD ("command") are any geometry overrides specified on the command line, and the values in D ("Identify") are the values returned from the ATA IDENTIFY command to the isc controller chips themselves. Just in case you, or anyone, were interested. JdeBP --- FleetStreet 1.19 NR * Origin: JdeBP's point, using Squish (2:440/4.3) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00006 Date: 03/31/98 From: JONATHAN DE BOYNE POLLARD Time: 01:15pm \/To: JONATHAN MICHAELS (Read 3 times) Subj: Microsoft mice and RSI JM> closer to getting the dreaded rsi. this is why i detest the the JM> microsoft mouse system .. this has been proven to not just cause rsi JM> but ti severly agrivate existing conditions. mice started out as JM> three button beasties and their was no double clicking involved . JM> microsoft need to differentiate thier ice from everybody else, so the JM> droped a key and introduced the concept of double clicking, and the JM> drs have been thier freinds ever since. To be fair, this may be lambasting Microsoft unnecessarily. After all, the Apple Macintosh mouse had just one button. On the other hand, though, Microsoft did make several changes to the WIMP interface that were purely for legal reasons, to help it avoid the famous "look and feel" lawsuit from Apple, not for ergonomic or user friendliness ones. JdeBP --- FleetStreet 1.19 NR * Origin: JdeBP's point, using Squish (2:440/4.3) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00007 Date: 04/02/98 From: JONATHAN DE BOYNE POLLARD Time: 11:16pm \/To: EDDY THILLEMAN (Read 3 times) Subj: PS/2- or serial mouse? ET> What's the difference between a PS/2 mouse and a serial mouse, apart ET> from the port? They use both an IRQ and an address, right? A serial mouse is connected in the same way as an external modem is, and the driver talks to it via the appropriate UART. A serial mouse driver has to allocate the IRQ and I/O port numbers of the UART. A PS/2 mouse is connected, via a different sort of connector, to the keyboard controller chip, and the driver talks to it by sending commands to the keyboard controller. This is why the PS/2 mouse driver has to cooperate with the keyboard driver. Only one thing can be talking to the 8042 chip at any one time. A PS/2 mouse driver allocates the I/O port numbers of the keyboard chip, sharing that allocation with the keyboard driver (run RMVIEW /D at an OS/2 command prompt to see this for yourself). JdeBP --- FleetStreet 1.19 NR * Origin: JdeBP's point, using Squish (2:440/4.3) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 260 OS/2 HARDWARE Ref: F4E00008 Date: 04/07/98 From: STEVE MCCRYSTAL Time: 06:51am \/To: MIKE RUSKAI (Read 3 times) Subj: Bidirectional parallel p ; In a msg of , Mike Ruskai writes to Steve Mccrystal: ; Mike, SM>> An Epson Stylus Color 600 inkjet. The only thing that seems SM>> to work is the SPP (Standard P-Port) setting in the bios SM>> settings. The printer is supposed to be IEEE-1284 SM>> compliant, at least that's what the specs say. I know the SM>> bios isn't supposed to be used once OS/2 is booted, but SM>> I assume *this* setting is still important. MR> You seem to be confusing CMOS setup with BIOS a little bit. Actually, I know the difference, but from reading the above it surely isn't obvious! :^) MR> OS/2 will use the hardware as configured by the CMOS setup, unless MR> something is telling it to do differently (like a device driver). MR> Are you saying that despite setting it to be a standard parallel MR> port, that OS/2 is trying to make it a ECP/EPP port? Well, no... what I'm saying is that when I configure the port as ECP or ECP/EPP, OS/2 doesn't recognise that there is a printer attached, at least as far as the printer object is concerned (the status line at the top of the "Printer - Job icon view" window says (near as I can recall) "No printer attached", and the printer doesn't work. When I configure as a standard printer port (IRQ7) the printer works, but not bidirectional. One can't help but notice the Lexmark filenames in the BIDI.EXE archive, so I'm left wondering if it is intended to work with other than Lexmark/IBM printers, or if it does work with other printers. -[Steve]- --- GoldED/2 3.00.Beta3a+/#1057US3 * Origin: -[Steve's Place]- New Berlin, WI (FidoNet 1:154/731.2)