Re: Kernel TODO list

Mike Kilburn (duxmike@iafrica.com)
Thu, 21 Mar 1996 09:17:34 +0200


>
> > Maybe even impliment winRPI modem protocal
> > (the modem manufacturers leave the compression/decompression
> > chips off the modem and make the processor do extra stuff).
>
> This is extremely important. It might be difficult to buy
> a traditional modem in a few years. I think you can get
> documentation from Rockwell. (they make 70% of modem chips)
>

Rockwell leaves off the RAM used for LAP-M buffers and V.42bis
dictionaries to lower the cost for modems producers that use RPI. They
save on ROM as well, but its the high-speed static RAM they really
save on. There are many people at rockwell which do not like RPI and
I think they would not allow RPI to take over. RPI is a marketing
persons gimick. If you want info from rockwell on RPI you will have to
sign a NDA. It would be very easy to reverse engineer it but I dont
know if you could then release under GPL. Another nice feature of some
rockwell modems is the Hayes Auto Sync protocol support. This allows
the modem to run sync protocols thru an async comm port. One could
make a driver for Linux which used this feature to talk to Cisco HDLC
routers or sync PPP without the costly sync port, the other end can be any
sync modem. I have already reverse engineered this protocol and much of RPI
but I dont know what the legal status would be. The problem with Linux would
be like the Class 1 fax problem. But may be the newer POSIX.4a stuff will help
in this regard. If someone else wants to write the code, and I am protected
from a legal point of view, I can provide what I know of RPI and Auto Sync.
What
make it hard for me is I gained some of the information while working for a
company which was under an NDA at the time. I dont know how to seperate out
that knowedge from what I have learned on my own.