Peter,
You're mistaken, at least in part. I used an original Winmodem (28.8 that I
later upgraded to 33.6) on a 486 DX2 50. I then used it for years on a
Pentium
133 (>NOT< a P133 MMX). MMX is NOT required, nor used.
You are correct that it is missing some of the hardware for digital signal
processing.
That's now done by the CPU via a program, which (tada) runs under Windows
typically.
That said, there is nothing that says a Winmodem can't run under Linux...
except that
you need to have knowledge of how the hardware hooks into the software DSP.
And that
tends to be proprietary. And most of the manufacturers have not (as yet)
gone out and
1) published those specs either as GPL or under confidentiality agreements
with driver
authors allowing independent softmodem driver development nor 2) done the
work in house
with their own software driver authors.
Either would allow quick, reliable, and usable W(L)inmodems in Linux. A few
companies
have done Linmodem drivers.... some have even done the confidentiality
agreements allowing
drivers to be made... but the vast majority have not, so the driver
development is hit-or-miss,
with the authors having to make intelligent guesses, try out the software,
examine the
results, modify their code based on other informed guesses, lather, rinse,
repeat.
Eventually, the most used Winmodems will probably have Linmodem drivers...
but it will
still be a while. And what makes it harder is that the developers are
trying to interface
with a moving target, in terms of what kernel to use.
Oh well.
Bill Ward
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Massey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 9:30 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: recipient.list.not.shown; @nswcphdn.navy.mil
Subject: RE: Stupid question about winmodems
>On Thu, 06 Jul 2000, Stephen King wrote:
>> Could someone define for me the difference between a winmodem and a
regular
>> modem?
>>
>WinModem is missing most of the hardware that makes a modem. It's
>replaced by software that EMULATES the missing hardware, thus making
>the processor do all the work that used to be done by the missing
>hardware.
> John
>
I was under the impression that a Software modem, like said, is missing the
hardware that makes it a traditional modem and utilises a combination of the
MMX part of the Intel Processors and the ermm AMD equivilant of MMX and
software written for WinDoze. I could be wrong of course :)
Peter M.
--
To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe"
as the Subject.
