From: Calvin Grier (cgrier_at_ix.netcom.com)
Date: Mon May 05 2003 - 08:01:13 PDT
I have not tried this yet, but I ran across in interesting web page today that I thought I'd share.
http://www.ieci.com.au/information/article.asp?Article_ID=294
Since anyone can buy an inexpensive PCI card these days that will add seial ports to a PC, I thought it might be fun to try and "match" the serial rate that is present on MP2x00 units running at 219Mhz (220Mhz PIXsolution Implant 2000). If we can swap out the crystal on the Newton, we should be able to do the same trick to get a nonstandard baud rate on the PC/Mac that makes up for the difference between 3.6864 and the 5 Mhz Newton crystal.
It should be possible to take a PCI serial card with a 16550 chip or an OxSemi serial chip (www.oxsemi.com) and change the crystal to match the speed boot we have all liked so much in our Newtons. It would not impact other serial ports in the PC. (I'm assuming that NCU and other utilities would be able to see the new COM ports.) After the new PCI card was installed, you could use the 38400 or 57600 setting in Sloup, Revlar, EETransfer, or NCU with no problem.
I won't have time to look into this for several months, and thought that someone with a boosted MP2x00 would want to try it out. Maybe someone with a little time on their hands could modify standard PCI serial cards and offer them to Newton owners for a fee.
Comments?
--Calvin
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