Author Topic: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports  (Read 55283 times)

Andreas Schnellbacher

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #75 on: February 23, 2021, 07:56:54 pm »
And then I need to find a compatible 8 COM Ports Pci board with low profile.
AFAIR Digi doesn't exist anymore. That's why I've mentioned the Startech one, but maybe with a maximum of 4 ports. There exist more manufacturers of PCI cards, I don't remember their names.

I doubt that any recent manufacturer provides OS/2 drivers. Maybe the only solution is to find a used Digi PCI board.

Lars

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #76 on: February 23, 2021, 08:18:46 pm »
Any PCI card that offers COM ports via I/O address space and defining the standard UART register set can be used with the COM.SYS driver. There is a config file that needs some setup but it will work.

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #77 on: February 23, 2021, 09:31:14 pm »

Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #78 on: February 23, 2021, 09:37:29 pm »
Always a bit scary when it only shows Windows support. I don't know much though.

Lars

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #79 on: February 23, 2021, 11:30:01 pm »
https://www.startech.com/it-it/schede-adattatori/pex8s1052

So this could be right?

Regards
It would be great to see a close up of the chips used. From there you can read the chip spec.
If you could return it then you might to give it a try.

Paul Smedley

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #80 on: February 24, 2021, 02:57:15 am »
Always a bit scary when it only shows Windows support. I don't know much though.
Reading http://content.etilize.com/Manufacturer-Brochure/1024696415.pdf looks promising, shows:
Windows® 8 (32/64bit), 7 (32/64), Vista(32/64), XP(32/64), 2000
Windows® Server 2008 R2, 2003(32/64)
Linux Kernel 2.6.x

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #81 on: February 24, 2021, 10:12:16 am »
https://www.startech.com/it-it/schede-adattatori/pex8s1052

So this could be right?

Regards
It would be great to see a close up of the chips used. From there you can read the chip spec.
If you could return it then you might to give it a try.

ID chipset SystemBase - SB16C1052PCI

Lars

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #82 on: February 24, 2021, 11:05:27 am »
At least it looks promising. (I did not yet find a detailed technical spec for the SB16C1052PCI chip).

The final test would be this:
1) install the card
2) use PCI.EXE to check the PCI config space settings for this card.
3) If any one of the BARs (Base address registers) lists an I/O address range (instead of a memory address range), then there is a good chance that the card will be supported by COM.SYS, provided it offers the standard UART register set (which is normally true if a BAR announces I/O address range addressability).

After some more research, seems like the used chip (SB16C1052PCI) is compatible to:
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/SC16C654B_654DB.pdf?
The chip offers the standard UART register set (which is good) but it leaves it open to the board implementer if it is addressed via I/O address space or memory address space (it just uses 3 address bits A0,A1,A2 to select between the various registers of the UART register set but it imposes no restriction to address it via I/O address space or memory address space. The "glue logic" on the board will then map it into either I/O address space or memory address space).

If the card is a multi-UART card (which it is), the next challenge normally is to find the "step size" of the register set from one UART to the next. Normally, these are evenly spaced apart. The aforementioned spec lists 4 signals !CSA,!CSB!,!CSC,!CSD which address an individual UART (of that 4-UART chip, for 8 UARTS, it will of course be 8 signals). Typically, these signal lines either directly wire to an address bit or follow a simple logic to wire to one or more address bits (for 8 ports, that would be 3 address bits as a minimum).


My advice: buy that thing, try it out and return if it does not work. By the way, if you are also using Windows, you can also look into Windows Device manager to find out which I/O or memory addresses this card occupies.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2021, 11:41:43 am by Lars »

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #83 on: February 24, 2021, 03:23:59 pm »
https://www.startech.com/it-it/schede-adattatori/pex8s1052

So this could be right?

Regards

I tried the StarTech PCIe serial cards a few years ago and they do not work at all. If you are a device driver writer, there are a few changes needed. This would be a good card to have support added.
Expert consulting for ArcaOS, OS/2 and eComStation
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Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #84 on: February 24, 2021, 06:41:09 pm »
https://www.startech.com/it-it/schede-adattatori/pex8s1052

So this could be right?

Regards

I tried the StarTech PCIe serial cards a few years ago and they do not work at all. If you are a device driver writer, there are a few changes needed. This would be a good card to have support added.

Did you find the right hardware at least? 😬

Lars

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #85 on: February 24, 2021, 07:48:21 pm »
https://www.startech.com/it-it/schede-adattatori/pex8s1052

So this could be right?

Regards

I tried the StarTech PCIe serial cards a few years ago and they do not work at all. If you are a device driver writer, there are a few changes needed. This would be a good card to have support added.
Do you have a PCI dump of that card.? I suppose it is memory mapped.

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #86 on: February 25, 2021, 03:57:11 pm »
https://www.startech.com/it-it/schede-adattatori/pex8s1052

So this could be right?

Regards

I tried the StarTech PCIe serial cards a few years ago and they do not work at all. If you are a device driver writer, there are a few changes needed. This would be a good card to have support added.
Do you have a PCI dump of that card.? I suppose it is memory mapped.

That was almost 10 years ago. I do not have any dump.

We concluded that it was a memory mapped card.

For the Gasonics machine, I always had a plentiful supply of old Digi cards, so no new drivers were needed. For other projects, I found the nearly identical StarTech PCI cards to work well.

I don't really understand all the issues of using old machines in a clean room. How do you get all the dust off?
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Martin Iturbide

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #87 on: February 25, 2021, 11:45:10 pm »
Hi

I will like to solve the question:
- Which modern 8 Port serial card works on ArcaOS-OS/2 ?
By modern, I may refer to PCI and PCI-e that are available for sale today.

Update: I checked Amazon to see some options, but it is kind of hard to get some device to test those with OS/2.
- Syba SY-PEX15019 PCI-Express RS-232 Serial 8-Port Card with OXPCIe958 Chipset  - $60.66 (Chipset)
- StarTech.com 8-Port PCI Express RS232 Serial Adapter Card - PCIe RS232 Serial Card - 16C1050 UART.  - US$ 164.99 (Website)
- IO CREST 8 Port DB9 Serial RS-232 PCI-e x1 Controller Card with Low Profile Bracket SY-PEX15067  - $102.99  - (Website)

Regards
« Last Edit: February 26, 2021, 01:07:50 am by Martin Iturbide »
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Neil Waldhauer

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #88 on: February 26, 2021, 03:33:45 pm »
Hi

I will like to solve the question:
- Which modern 8 Port serial card works on ArcaOS-OS/2 ?
By modern, I may refer to PCI and PCI-e that are available for sale today.

Update: I checked Amazon to see some options, but it is kind of hard to get some device to test those with OS/2.
- Syba SY-PEX15019 PCI-Express RS-232 Serial 8-Port Card with OXPCIe958 Chipset  - $60.66 (Chipset)
- StarTech.com 8-Port PCI Express RS232 Serial Adapter Card - PCIe RS232 Serial Card - 16C1050 UART.  - US$ 164.99 (Website)
- IO CREST 8 Port DB9 Serial RS-232 PCI-e x1 Controller Card with Low Profile Bracket SY-PEX15067  - $102.99  - (Website)

Regards

As I said above, I have tested the StarTech board above and it does not work.
Expert consulting for ArcaOS, OS/2 and eComStation
http://www.blondeguy.com

Martin Iturbide

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #89 on: February 26, 2021, 03:48:37 pm »
Hi

I will like to solve the question:
- Which modern 8 Port serial card works on ArcaOS-OS/2 ?
By modern, I may refer to PCI and PCI-e that are available for sale today.

Update: I checked Amazon to see some options, but it is kind of hard to get some device to test those with OS/2.
- Syba SY-PEX15019 PCI-Express RS-232 Serial 8-Port Card with OXPCIe958 Chipset  - $60.66 (Chipset)
- StarTech.com 8-Port PCI Express RS232 Serial Adapter Card - PCIe RS232 Serial Card - 16C1050 UART.  - US$ 164.99 (Website)
- IO CREST 8 Port DB9 Serial RS-232 PCI-e x1 Controller Card with Low Profile Bracket SY-PEX15067  - $102.99  - (Website)

Regards

As I said above, I have tested the StarTech board above and it does not work.

Good, so I guess we can cross out the 16C1050 UART chipset, since it does not have OS/2 support.

Regards
Martin Iturbide
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