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AnDan Software FOSSIL Version 1.20
Users Manual
Scandinavian Digital Systems AnDan Software FOSSIL Version 1.20 Users Manual
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Table of contents
1 Overview ............................................... 3
1.1 Features of ADF ................................... 3
2 Shareware .............................................. 3
2.1 Use as shareware .................................. 3
2.2 How to register ................................... 4
3 Support and new versions ............................... 5
3.1 ADF doesn't work .................................. 5
4 Included files ......................................... 5
5 Installation ........................................... 6
6 Command line arguments ................................. 6
7 Execution examples ..................................... 6
8 Baud rate calculation .................................. 7
9 Receiver FIFO trigger level ............................ 8
10 Error messages ......................................... 9
11 Benchmarks ............................................. 10
11.1 Memory consumption ................................ 10
11.2 Execution speed ................................... 11
12 The ADFComCh program ................................... 12
13 The ADFDebug program ................................... 12
13.1 Using ADFDebug .................................... 12
14 The ADFTerm program .................................... 13
15 The ADFTest program .................................... 14
16 Version history ........................................ 14
Copyright (c) 1994-1995 Scandinavian Digital Systems AB
This product, including the manual and the software, is provided
as is. Scandinavian Digital Systems AB and Anders Danielsson
disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether expressed or
implied, and are not liable to you or anyone else for any damages
or costs due to the use or inability to use this product.
Acknowledgments:
AnDan Software is a trademark of Scandinavian Digital Systems AB.
FidoNet is a trademark of Tom Jennings.
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
X00 is a program made by Raymond L. Gwinn.
BNU is a program made by David Nugent, Unique Computing Pty
Limited.
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1 Overview
ADF is a FOSSIL revision level 5 driver, including the additional
functions defined by Raymond L. Gwinn in X00 v1.50.
ADF is specially designed for users of high speed modems with or
without the 16550 UART, using DOS or a multitasking environment.
Some communication parameters cannot be set in ADF, they are hard
coded for best optimization. These hard coded parameters will
work fine for almost all users of high speed modems (users using
a locked baud-rate).
By doing this hard coding and by writing the complete ADF program
in the assembly language, the FOSSIL driver will be fast and
small.
ADF was initially written some years ago because other FOSSIL
drivers did not always work properly in protected mode
multitasking environments, where the UART is emulated.
ADF is designed to work well with both emulated UARTs and real
UARTs, without any drawbacks.
1.1 Features of ADF
* Always a locked baud-rate.
* Locked baud-rate of any speed (2 bps - 115200 bps).
* Always 8 databits, no parity, and 1 stop bit (8N1).
* Always CTS/RTS handshake. Never DSR/DTR or XON/XOFF handshake.
* One port per ADF (load ADF in different tasks for many ports).
* COM-port address configurable (0H-FFFFH).
* COM-port IRQ configurable (0-15).
* Full support of the 16550 UART.
* Fills transmit 16550-FIFO buffer with all 16 bytes.
* Receiver 16550-FIFO configurable (1, 4, 8 or 14 bytes).
* Only 8088/8086 compatible code used.
2 Shareware
The files in this package may be copied and distributed if no fee
is charged, if no changes are done and as no part of other
products, in purpose to test and evaluate this product for a
period of 30 days.
2.1 Use as shareware
To use ADF.EXE as shareware, you must first execute the supplied
REGISTER.EXE and register ADF.EXE as shareware to be able to use
it for a test period of 30 days.
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Run REGISTER.EXE, specify ADF.EXE as file to register and do not
enter any user name. ADF.EXE may then be used as shareware.
When ADF.EXE is executed it will display the number of days left
of the test period.
After 30 days, ADF.EXE will stop executing!
2.2 How to register
To register the program and use it for more than 30 days, you
must pay 60 SEK, DM 10 or an amount equal to the sum of USD 10 in
a currency of your own choice.
You can either send cash to:
Scandinavian Digital Systems AB
Billerudsgatan 20
S-661 30 Saffle
Sweden
or you can deposit the amount to the Swedish postal giro account
970159-0.
Only if you give your FidoNet or Internet e-mail address as
sender, you will receive an e-mail receipt of your deposit.
After depositing the fee, send an electronic mail through FidoNet
to Reg at 2:203/620 or through Internet to reg@andan.edv.se. The
mail should contain the following lines:
Prod=ADF
User=<Your name and your e-mail address, BBS or location>
You will recieve an automatic reply to the address you mailed
your registration. The reply will contain the following
information:
Prod=ADF
File=ADF.EXE
User=<Same thing as you wrote>
Code=<Your private registration code>
When you have received the reply, run REGISTER.EXE and enter the
required information.
When you specify your user registration name after the "User=",
you should use your name together with some kind of address or
location information. Examples:
User=Anders Danielsson, AnDan BBS, 2:203/620
User=Charles Smith, cs@someplace.com
User=Hans Schultz, Dernauer Str., Hamburg, Germany
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You may also phone AnDan BBS at +46-533-13700 and register
on-line. The on-line registration is similar to the mail
registration.
E-mail registration replys through FidoNet are routed. If you
don't want routed mail, use the on-line registration.
3 Support and new versions
If you have questions, comments or find bugs in the program,
please send electronic mail to the author, Anders Danielsson at
FidoNet 2:203/620 or ad@andan.edv.se.
Well documented reports of new bugs and suggestions are honored
with a free registration.
The latest version can be file requested as ADF from FidoNet
2:203/620.
You may also phone AnDan BBS at +46-533-13700, where the newest
versions and other shareware programs from AnDan Software always
are downloadable for all users.
3.1 ADF doesn't work
ADF is of cause tested to work with a lot of programs that uses
FOSSIL drivers, in many different environments.
The author is convinced that ADF will work together with all well
behaved programs, and if not, it is our intention to as fast as
possible make it work.
However, it is our policy not to make memory or time consuming
changes in ADF only to make it work with bad behaved programs
that do not use the FOSSIL properly.
4 Included files
You should have received the following files:
File name: Description:
ADF.TXT This file
ADF.EXE The FOSSIL driver
ADFCOMCH.EXE Checks COM-ports
ADFDEBUG.EXE FOSSIL debugger
ADFTERM.EXE Very small and simple communication program
ADFTEST.EXE FOSSIL tester
REGISTER.EXE Registration program
ADFCOM1.BAT Example of use of ADF with COM1
ADFCOM2.BAT Example of use of ADF with COM2
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5 Installation
Just copy ADF.EXE to a directory included in your PATH.
If you are only running DOS, edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT and insert a
line that loads ADF.
You may insert (or call) one of the files ADFCOM1.BAT or
ADFCOM2.BAT for quick and easy editing.
If you are using a protected mode multitasking environment, such
as Windows, load one copy of ADF in each wanted DOS session using
different ports. Do not load ADF in AUTOEXEC.BAT. In fact, this
applies for all FOSSIL drivers, and this is the reason why ADF
only uses one port per load.
6 Command line arguments
When you run ADF without any arguments, it will display the
following help text (use ADF|MORE for more prompt):
adf port addr irq baud recbuf trabuf trig
port FOSSIL port number, 0-127. Example: 0
addr Address in hex of COM-port, 0-FFFF. Example: 3F8
irq IRQ number of COM-port, 0-15. Example: 4
baud Locked baud-rate, 1-115200. Example: 38400
recbuf Size of receive buffer, 256-16384. Example: 2048
trabuf Size of transmit buffer, 256-16384. Example: 1024
trig Receiver FIFO trigger level, 1, 4, 8 or 14. Example: 8
ADF will stay resident when using the above command line.
adf unload
ADF will remove itself from memory when using the above command
line.
adf watch on|off
ADF will turn carrier watchdog on or off when using the above
command line.
7 Execution examples
Example of loading ADF using COM1 (see ADFCOM1.BAT):
adf 0 3F8 4 38400 2048 1024 8
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Example of loading ADF using COM2 (see ADFCOM2.BAT):
adf 1 2F8 3 38400 2048 1024 8
Example of unloading ADF:
adf unload
Example of REMOTE.BAT, to execute on DOS-Shell in a BBS:
@echo off
rem %1 = Baud rate (used to detect local call)
if not %1@==0@ ctty COM%2
if not %1@==0@ adf watch on
command
adf watch off
ctty CON
The carrier watchdog will try to reboot the computer after about
10 seconds from the carrier drops. This may be dangerous,
especially in a multitasking environment (such as Windows).
8 Baud rate calculation
A PC compatible serial port uses the following formula to
calculate the baud rate:
Baud = 115200 / Divisor
The Divisor is an integer number (whole number), 1 to 65535, used
to program the serial port (the UART chip). This means that only
certain baud rates are allowed.
Divisor: Baud rate:
1 115200 bps
2 57600 bps
3 38400 bps
4 28800 bps
5 23040 bps
6 19200 bps
7 16457 bps
8 14400 bps
9 12800 bps
10 11520 bps
11 10473 bps
12 9600 bps
. .
. .
X 115200/X
. .
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. .
When you specify a baud rate on the command line to ADF, ADF
calculates the Divisor and checks that the baud-rate is valid
(realizable).
If you for example use 76800 bps as a baud rate to ADF, the
Divisor will be 115200/76800 = 1.5, but this is not an integer
(whole number) and cannot be set. ADF will in this case display
an error message.
9 Receiver FIFO trigger level
The last argument to ADF when loading it, is the receiver FIFO
trigger level. This used by the 16550 UART, if you don't have a
16550 or compatible, it will have no effect, but must still be
specified on the command line.
The receiver FIFO trigger level can be set to 1, 4, 8 or 14.
The value is the number of bytes in the receiver FIFO buffer that
will generate an interrupt from the UART to the CPU.
The receiver FIFO buffer and it's trigger level, is the main
reason why many people replaces their old 8250 and 16450 UARTs
with 16550.
If you for example use a baud rate of 38400 bps, there will be a
new byte received each 260 us (microseconds). With an ordinary
UART, the CPU must answer to an interrupt from the UART each 260
us, and read the byte and store it in memory.
If the CPU is unable to answer an interrupt at this rate, or if
some program has disable interrupts longer than 260 us, received
bytes will be lost. If you are downloading a file, you will get a
lot of resends.
The 16550 UART has a 16 byte receiver FIFO buffer (and also a 16
byte transmitter FIFO) so it can store up to 16 bytes until the
CPU must read and empty the buffer.
The receiver FIFO trigger level specifies when an interrupt
should be generated by the UART to the CPU.
If the trigger level is set to 4, the UART will generate an
interrupt after 4 bytes have been received, but will still fill
the buffer up to 16 bytes if the CPU doesn't answer the
interrupt. The rate of interrupts at 38400 bps will be
4*260 = 1040 us, and the tolerance to no answer from the CPU will
be (16-4)*260 = 3120 us.
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The most common problem with high baud rates, is that programs
turns of interrupts during too long time. A trigger level of 14
would in most cases not be a good solution, normally a trigger
level of 8 is good enough, in some cases you may lower it to 4.
You should not choose a lower trigger level then necessary,
because it would load the CPU without giving any benefits.
10 Error messages
When ADF displays an error message, it will wait a moment before
continuing, so you are able to read the message when ADF is
executed among other programs in batch files (such as
AUTOEXEC.BAT).
All error messages with explanations:
"Argument error (command line error)."
ADF was unable to understand the command line arguments, please
see section 6 above. This error message will also be displayed if
numerical values on the command line are out of range.
"DOS v3.1 or newer required."
Your DOS is too old, you need to upgrade to a newer DOS version.
"Unable to handle TSRs in this environment."
ADF does a check that it can search and find it self in the DOS
memory (lower or upper). If this fails it will display this
message. Try using plain DOS without special memory managers or
program loaders.
"Error when releasing memory."
DOS reports error when freeing memory. This can occur during both
load and unload of ADF. Probably is the DOS memory allocation
blocks damaged (by some program).
"Invalid (not realizable) baud-rate."
The specified baud-rate cannot be used. Please see section 8
above.
"Not enough memory for buffers."
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The memory given to ADF by DOS at load time is not enough to
satisfy the wanted size of the receive and transmit buffers.
Decrease the sizes or load ADF in low memory or in a larger high
memory block.
"Error when restoring interrupts."
This may occur when unloading ADF. Most common cause is that some
other programs also are using the same interrupts. Try to unload
all TSRs in the reverse order of how they where loaded.
"ADF already loaded."
This message will be displayed if you try to load ADF a second
time.
"ADF not loaded."
This message will be displayd if you use some of the ADF command
lines that requires ADF to be loaded as a TSR first (e.g. unload
and watch).
11 Benchmarks
Users have asked how much memory ADF will consume and how fast it
is compared with other well known FOSSIL drivers.
Below are tables of memory consumption and execution speed.
X00 v1.50 and BNU v1.70 have been used as references.
The drivers where loaded using the following command lines:
x00 E 0=3F8,IRQ4 B,0,38400 R=2048 T=1024
bnu /T1024 /R2048 /P1 /L0:38400,8N1
adf 0 3F8 4 38400 2048 1024 8
Please note that ADF has not been written with any special
efforts to make it small and fast. These benchmarks are only
included here to show that ADF is as good as any other FOSSIL
driver written in the assembly language.
11.1 Memory consumption
How much memory ADF (and other FOSSILs) will use depends on how
large receive and transmit buffers are being used.
The memory consumption was determined using the DOS command
MEM /d.
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Program: Bytes used:
ADF.EXE 6240 bytes
X00.SYS 9808 bytes
X00.EXE 10288 bytes + environment size
BNU.SYS 8272 bytes
BNU.EXE 8304 bytes + environment size
Probably due to ADF uses only locked baud and always one port, it
is somewhat smaller than the others.
11.2 Execution speed
The execution speed has been measured using ADFDebug and ADFTest
(see below). ADFTest was executed 8 times per FOSSIL, and the
most common value was used.
The computer used was a 486DX-50 with no significant TSRs. The
internal cache (8 KB) and the external cache were both disabled.
Each time value has the unit 0.838095 us (microseconds).
FOSSIL function: ADF: X00: BNU:
00 Set communications parameters 83 134 120
01 Transmit character and wait 82 195 132
02 Get received character with wait 61 79 56
03 Return serial port status 67 82 53
04 Activate port 109 583 38710
05 Deactivate port 65 273 236
06 Raise/lower DTR 43 60 66
07 Return timer tick information 33 38 39
08 Flush output buffer 43 78 47
09 Purge output buffer 43 65 48
0A Purge input buffer 42 77 53
0B Transmit no wait 63 106 74
0C Non-destructive read-ahead 54 62 53
0F Flow control for serial I/O 44 64 48
18 Block Read 104 362 72
19 Block Write 108 257 87
These values should be compared with care. All three FOSSIL
drivers have about the same execution speed. Only large
differences (50% or more) are to be considered.
Due to difference in implementation, some function takes much
longer time, for example, BNU writes to the screen during
function 01 Activate port.
One thing to remember is that ADF actually does more job for all
read and write (transmit) functions, due to safer operation with
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protected mode multitaskers using emulated UARTs. As you can see,
this has been achieved without any significant time losses.
The times for 'Block Read' and 'Block Write' are probably not
fair, because only a few characters were transmitted in the test.
Note that no execution speed of the interrupt services routine
has been measured.
12 The ADFComCh program
When you run ADFComCh without any arguments, it will display the
following help text:
adfcomch addr
addr Address in hex of COM port, 0-FFFF. Example: 3F8
ADFComCh checks if there is an UART at the specified port
address. The most common port addresses are:
COM1 3F8
COM2 2F8
COM3 3E8
COM4 2E8
If the UART is a 16550, ADFComCh will enable the FIFO and change
the trigger level.
13 The ADFDebug program
When you run ADFDebug without any arguments, it will display the
following help text:
adfdebug command
'command' is one of the following commands:
L [opt] Load TSR, should be done after the FOSSIL load. Options:
/t Use time measurement.
/sNN Use ASCII NN as separator, default is 13 and 10 (CR
and LF).
U Unload TSR, should be done before the FOSSIL unload.
N No output (default at load time).
S Screen output.
F file File output to the specified file.
13.1 Using ADFDebug
ADFDebug is a FOSSIL debugger. It is loaded as a TSR after the
FOSSIL has been loaded, and may write debug (trace) information
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to the screen or to a file.
It is included for application programmers, and for advanced
users.
ADFDebug is loaded using the command L with or without the
options /t or /s. If /t is used, it will do time measurements of
the FOSSIL driver functions using timer ticks with the unit
0.838095 us (microseconds). The time will always include a small
offset error, independent of the FOSSIL driver used. Execution
time of interrupts that occurs during FOSSIL execution will be
included in the time measurement.
When loading with the option /t, ADFDebug may cause the internal
DOS clock (BIOS Timer Tick) to be incorrectly updated. Do only
use /t in plain DOS without any timer depending TSRs, including
hard disk caches (e.g. smartdrv), and reboot when done with
testing. During testing, do not hold down keys or move the mouse.
After loading ADFDebug, the command S or F is used to start debug
output, and the command N is used to stop the output.
When using the command F, you must also specify a file name. The
file is opened, written to and closed at each FOSSIL call, so
most programs using the FOSSIL will run very slow. The file may
also get very large.
ADFDebug uses DOS to write to the file, which may cause a system
crash when the FOSSIL is used by some programs (programs that
calls the FOSSIL from interrupt routines).
For testing purposes the program ADFTest (see below) is included.
It calls a lot of FOSSIL functions, and the calls are done
immediate after a BIOS Timer Tick count, to minimize time
measurement errors.
Example of usage of ADFDebug and ADFTest:
@echo off
del adf.lst
adf 0 3F8 4 38400 2048 1024 8
adfdebug L /t /s9
adfdebug F adf.lst
adftest 0
adfdebug U
adf unload
14 The ADFTerm program
When you run ADFTerm without any arguments, it will display the
following help text:
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adfterm port
port FOSSIL port number, 0-127. Example: 0
ADFTerm is a very small and simple communication program, that
uses the ADF or any FOSSIL driver. It will set 2400 bps and 8N1
if FOSSIL is not locked.
You may call BBSes and use ANSI-BBS if you have ANSI.SYS loaded.
15 The ADFTest program
When you run ADFTest without any arguments, it will display the
following help text:
adftest port
port FOSSIL port number, 0-127. Example: 0
ADFTest is a FOSSIL test program.
ADFTest will send "AT<cr>" to the port and expect at least one
character as reply. A modem connected to the port will in most
cases do the job.
ADFTest is intended to be used with ADFDebug for testing and
verifying FOSSIL drivers.
16 Version history
v1.10 November 22, 1995
This is the first non-BETA version. The setting of the receiver
FIFO trigger level on the command line has been added since the
v1.00 BETAs from 1994.
v1.20 December 9, 1995
Many improvements and bug fixes has been done. ADF now includes
all FOSSIL functions 01H to 21H as X00 v1.50 does. It also
includes function 7EH and 7FH for "external application". ADF
will now display an error message if the baud-rate is not
realizable. Some more utility programs have been included, the
debug function has been moved into a separate program (option /d
is no longer valid).
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