Multiport I/O cards: intelligent or dumb?

[Super user]

In article <9Xw8Z2w164w at cellar.UUCP> toad at cellar.UUCP (Tony Shepps) writes:
>We're running a BBS under SCO Unix.  Right now, we have two lines, but in the 
>near future we'd like to expand to three or four.
>
>The tough question is whether to go with the cheap non-intelligent multi-port 
>card or the more expensive intelligent version.
>
>We are running HST dual-standard modems exclusively, so we expect to always 
>communicate with the modems at 38,400 baud.  Beyond the BBS users and news 
>processing, there is little activity on the system.  Of course, we can 
>visualize a situation where 4 people are all downloading at 14,400 baud; but 
>would there be a noticeable difference with the intelligent I/O?
>
IMHO, with the number of lines you have (two with plans to expand to four),
a dumb serial card should fit your needs. Of course, if money isn't an
object, get a smart card (suchas the...oh skip it...).

In November 1989 a friend of mine, Terry Neu, benchmarked several
intelligent cards. He also included a dumb 8-port card. What was kinda
surprising at the time was that the dumb card did better than about
half of the "intelligent" cards all the way up to 19.2K baud. Benchmark
tests don't favor dumb cards, they output continously. For an dumb card
to outperform an intelligent card at 19.2K baud over 8 ports is a
surprise. In the real world, where users wouldn't press the card as
heavy as the benchmark, the dumb board should even work better. The
smart card will make a difference in buffering (giving users 'snappy'
screen refreshes) under the light load. Now, the serial drivers for 
the intelligent cards have probably improved their efficiency since
then too. Still, it's something to think about....


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