Re: Plus/4 RS232 woes

From: smf <smf_at_null.net>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2018 08:54:55 +0100
Message-ID: <d2926d3d-922f-c20e-4023-51d201fa46aa@null.net>
On 05/09/2018 01:26, Jim Brain wrote:
> It works as designed.  /16 mode gives 115200. The T232 used this to 
> get 115200 and 230400 (by using the 6551A and double clocking it)
>
Whoever wrote the data sheet seemed to think the /16 mode is only for 
working with synchronous TxC (XTAL1) and not an asynchronous with an 
external crystal (XTAL1 + XTAL2).

"On-chip baud rate generator: 15 programmable baud rates from a standard 
1.8432 Mhz external crystal (50 to 19,200 baud)."

"External 16x clock input for non-standard baud rates (up to 125Kbaud)"

I can't tell what the person who designed the chip was thinking, but 
it's rather telling that both commodore and apple don't appear to have 
been aware of it when they wrote their drivers.

I admit my electronics knowledge is a little poor, so I have no idea 
what xtal2 input is and what the chip will do if you put it into a mode 
where it would normally be ignored.

I've been trying to find out when this was discovered, a2232tuning.lha 
is the earliest so far and 1.4 is from 1997. I found this rather 
interesting post however.

"> The Super Serial Card came with a faulty 6551.  You can

 > get it replaced from the people who make the TurboASB.

Ah, I know what the problem is.

The 6551 is not "faulty".  The problem is that the 6551 has a peculiar
design feature: if the incoming flow control signal (CTS) turns off, the
transmitter is immediately disabled, causing a character being
transmitted to be cut off, producing a garbage character at the other
end.

This applies to the original Rockwell R6551, and possibly to some second
sources.  The Rockwell R65C51 (CMOS version) and other second sources of
the 6551 will wait until the current character is completely sent before
stopping transmit in response to CTS going away.

The outgoing flow control signals cause similar problems (on all
versions): dropping RTS will immediately cut off the transmitter, but
this can be managed by waiting for the current character to be
completely sent before RTS is dropped.

The replacement 6551 provided with the TurboASB will behave like the
R65C51, so hardware handshaking doesn't cause data corruption."
Received on 2018-09-05 10:00:04

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