Re: New-bus unit wiring via hints..

From: 韓家標 Bill Hacker <askbill_at_conducive.net>
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:01:55 -0400
John Baldwin wrote:
> On Thursday 11 October 2007 05:59:23 pm Marcel Moolenaar wrote:
>> On Oct 11, 2007, at 2:41 PM, John Baldwin wrote:
>>
*snip*

> on the PCI-ISA bridge of the controlling register) and the fact that COM1 and 
> COM2 have de-facto fixed resources on x86, I think it's ok for x86 to include 
> default hints for sio0 and sio1.
> 

Historically, COM1: - COM(n): assignments were not that hard-and-fast *anyway* - 
  ergo a once-common BIOS option to reverse them or move 1 or 2 ports within 4 
address blocks.

To an extent, the 'complaint' is only that modern BIOS and OS haven't undone 
that long legacy of ambiguity, and 'auto' is a 'don't really care' option.

And why try?

The physical serial ports are being phased out on many newer MB. Lucky to get a 
header block. Server grade system boards might be expected to keep 'a' serial 
port for a while yet, but most laptops have long-since shed them.

Scare resources are perhaps better applied to sorting other 'challenging' bus 
device issues.

Such as the vexation that the current rate of progress/economic necessity is 
causing I/O devices in general to appear, live a *very* short economic life, and 
be replaced by yet-another newer one at a rate that doesn't allow thorough 
testing even IF there has been time to code a driver.

That's not limited to F/OSS, either...

:-(

Bill
Received on Sat Oct 13 2007 - 04:01:58 UTC

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