Subj : Bink under WIN-XP
To   : Mike Tripp
From : Peter Knapper
Date : Mon May 03 2004 10:54 am

Hi Mike,

 PK> It seems Laptop manufactureres are being PUSHED by M$ into an
 PK> environment where there is no native SERIAL port on their
 PK> machines. If a user wants one of those, they have to install a
 PK> PCMCIA card serial port. The apparent reason for this is that USB
 PK> is now seen by M$ for all serial type connections (and forget all
 PK> existing serial port H/W out there today!).

 MT> The push (and design) of USB has come from an industry consortium of 
 MT> hardware vendors...not some M$ conspiracy.  9 and 25-pin serial ports, 
 MT> parallel printer ports, AT- and PS/2-style keyboard 
 MT> ports and mouse ports are all royalty bearing, patented 
 MT> designs of IBM and each vendor must have some 
 MT> arrangement with IBM in order to provide them.

The DB-9 and DB-25 Serial connectors, and the Centronics Parallel printer 
connector have nothing to do with IBM, the are hardware standards that existed 
long before IBM used them on the PC. The AT & PS/2 connectors however are all 
IBM. 

 MT> If anything, waiting for MS to provide 
 MT> proper functional OS support for USB devices has done 
 MT> more to slow the adoption rate than accelerate it.  The 
 MT> hardware has been around since the Win95/NT4 generation 
 MT> of MS OS.

Bill is just making sure he makes enough profit from it.

My main issue is the huge no. of existing environments that still need FULLY 
FUNCTIONAL Serial support, not just with the connector, but with the capability 
that the interface provides. The problem comes from component integration, 
rather than physical design issues, in their hurry to bring out "comparabile" 
devices, they leave out certain critical elements of the overall interface. 

I have been involved in discussions regarding exactly WHAT Laptop H/W is able 
to provide the functionality required to various support groups, and the 
picture being built is not pretty, mainly because the control signals need to 
be emulated where the H/W does not exist to drive them natively. So far the 
generation of a CORRECT (and some times varible length) BREAK signal seems to 
be the main show stopper, to many it has been forgotten... 

Cheers.........pk.


--- Maximus/2 3.01
 * Origin: Another Good Point About OS/2 (3:772/1.10)

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