SUMMARY: Serial Parallel Controller

From: Duncan Laidlaw (ddl@placer1.wimsey.com)
Date: Sat Sep 03 1994 - 02:25:14 CDT


Greetings!

The original post requested information from those experiencing
any problems with the SUN Serial Parallel Controller under
SOLARIS 2.3 and in particular the serial ports with modems
attached. The problems that I *thought* were being caused
by this device and the associated stc driver included
system "hangs" and loss of DTR on the modems.

I received three responses:

1 indicating the same set up without problems and 2 sites
that reported the same set up and similar problems.

Chris Tery (Chris_Terry/Computervision@ausns1.cv.com) replied
as follows. I have not summarised for I do not fully understand
his suggestion and fear a summary may distort:

>We have experienced a similar problem on a Customer SPARC Centre 2000. The site
>has a very large amount of R/F and so the lines were always noisy ...

>Sun suggested the following cable configuration ..

>The only thing you need to do, apart from the usual 2,3 & 7, is
> assert CD on the SPC card with the terminals DTR signal. You then must
> turn off software carrier detect on those ports. This means that the
> SPC driver can only open a port when CD is asserted (from DTR on the
> terminal).
 
> 2 ----------------- 3
> 3 ----------------- 2
> 7 ----------------- 7
> 20 ----------------- 8
> 8 ----------------- 20
 
> You will also need some shielding on the cable. Pins 4,5 & 6 can be
> looped back as required, assuming your not using RTS/CTS flow
> control.

>Also there is a new engineering patch for the SPC cards which is not currently
>widely available - push SMCC for it and they will deliver !

I chose the easy route and followed up with Sun supported by the two
responses that I received indicating a similar problem. I have
today been informed that the required patch is 101573.

Many thanks to:

<Chris_Terry/Computervision@ausns1.cv.com>
fhlee@csam.MY (Lee Fook Heng)
Phil Antoine <antoine@RadOnc.Duke.EDU>

Duncan Laidlaw
Placer Dome Inc.
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada

"It's in an advanced stage of development..."



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