home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
/ The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2 / The 640 Meg Shareware Studio CD-ROM Volume II (Data Express)(1993).ISO / os2 / com2207.zip / COMBETA.DOC < prev    next >
Text File  |  1992-07-23  |  6KB  |  129 lines
  1.                   BETA RELEASE OF OS/2 COMMUNICATION DRIVERS               
  2.  
  3.      
  4.  
  5.     IBM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING 
  6.     WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF FITNESS AND MERCHANTABILITY WITH 
  7.     RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT AND INCLUDED SOFTWARE 
  8.     PRODUCTS.  . BY FURNISHING THISMATERIAL, IBM GRANTS NO LICENSES TO ANY 
  9.     RELATED PATENTS OR COPYRIGHTS.  
  10.  
  11.     Copyright IBM Corporation, 1992, all rights reserved.  
  12.  
  13.  
  14.     1.0       INSTALLATION PROCEDURE
  15.  
  16.                     a.      The following files will be replaced:
  17.  
  18.                              x:\OS2\COM.SYS
  19.                              x:\OS2\MDOS\VCOM.SYS
  20.                              x:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2\SYSTEM\COMM.DRV
  21.  
  22.                             These files will be  backed up.
  23.  
  24.                      b.    Switch to the drive where the BETA files are
  25.                             located.
  26.  
  27.                      c.     Enter "cominst  x:" at the command line where
  28.                              x: is the drive letter of the OS/2 Partition.
  29.     
  30.  
  31.     2.0      DESCRIPTION OF DRIVERS
  32.                    
  33.                     The following is a brief description of the BETA 
  34.                     communication drivers for OS/2 2.0.  There are new 
  35.                     parameters for the COM.SYS which is located in the 
  36.                     CONFIG.SYS file.
  37.  
  38.     2.1      COM.SYS
  39.  
  40.                     COM.SYS now has new parameters to indicate the COM port 
  41.                     number, the I/O address, the UNIQUE IRQ level, how to 
  42.                     handle spurious interrupts and to indicate the type of 
  43.                     UART chip.  An example follows:  
  44.  
  45.                     DEVICE=C:\OS2\COM.SYS (3,xxxx,ii,s,t) [(4,xxxx,ii,s,t)]
  46.  
  47.                     where the last parameter is optional.  NOTE:  You must 
  48.                     have COM3 defined inorder for COM4 to work.  The usual 
  49.                     symptom of a bad I/O address or interrupt is when you 
  50.                     open a DOS or OS/2 command prompt and it fails.  
  51.  
  52.                     n         :  COM port number (usually 3 and 4 but it is
  53.                                    possible to configure COM2 to a
  54.                                    differrent IRQ or I/O Address
  55.                                                                                 
  56.                      xxxx   :  COM port address
  57.                                                                                 
  58.                      ii         :  IRQ level
  59.                                                                                 
  60.                      s         :  Spurious interrupt handling switch
  61.                                    values:
  62.  
  63.                                    D or d    to deinstall COM driver if 
  64.                                                  more than 1000 consecutive
  65.                                                  spurious interrupts occur.         
  66.  
  67.                                     I or i     to ignore spurious interrupt.
  68.                                     
  69.                                     P or p  to post error if more than 1000
  70.                                                  consecutive interrupts 
  71.                                                  occur.  When post error,
  72.                                                  some apps can hang.
  73.                 
  74.                                                                                 
  75.                      t         :   Type of UART chip. 
  76.                                     values:
  77.  
  78.                                    F or f     for FIFO 16550 UART chip.
  79.                                                 Other characters will be 
  80.                                                 treated as non FIFO like
  81.                                                 16450 or 8250.
  82.  
  83.                                                 If no parameter is passed,
  84.                                                 COM.SYS will check the 
  85.                                                 UART. This is to support
  86.                                                 Western Digital's 16550AF
  87.                                                 compatible chip which has a
  88.                                                 bug in its FIFO support.  
  89.  
  90.                                   W or w For Western Digital's 16550AF 
  91.                                                 compatible UART  (possible
  92.                                                 performance improvement)
  93.            
  94.  
  95.                                                                                 
  96.                     COM.SYS also has the following fixes: 
  97.  
  98.                     1. Change the 0xFF check to see the presence of port in 
  99.                         the given address.
  100.                                                                                 
  101.                     2. Change from DevHlp EOI to writing port 0x20 to 
  102.                          reduce interrupt pass.  (Possible performance
  103.                          improvement)
  104.                                                                                 
  105.                     3. Better checking of FIFO.  
  106.                                                                                 
  107.                     4. COM.SYS does not detect Hayes ESP card so that Hayes 
  108.                         ESP card can be used as a regular dual asynch card.
  109.                                                                                 
  110.                     5. New DOS_SETTING Property :  HW_COM (will be renamed 
  111.                        to COM_DIRECT_ACCESS later on.).  HW_COM removes the 
  112.                        IO hook of VCOM.SYS after check the access control.  
  113.                        If the app only works when VCOM.SYS is not loaded, 
  114.                        HW_COM will help the problem.  When HW_COM is on, 
  115.                        any application which requires the presence of 
  116.                        VCOM.SYS will not work in the DOS session.  This 
  117.                        VCOM.SYS requires the new COM.SYS.  
  118.  
  119.  
  120.     2.2      VCOM.SYS
  121.  
  122.                     No parameters or settings required.
  123.  
  124.     2.3      COMM.DRV
  125.  
  126.                     COMM.DRV contains the support for COM3 and COM4 in 
  127.                     WinOS2.  This COMM.DRV requires the new VCOM.SYS.  
  128.  
  129.