by Please point your browsers to the following _excellent_ review by
Rich Wells. "Radio Shack PRO-2035/OS535/PROBE Review". I don't think
that the reviews come very much more detailed (yet easy to understand) than this great
report.
http://www.qsl.net/n2mca/REV2035.HTM
Quote:
"PROBE is able to run with the most minimum of systems and that's bound to please a lot of
people. Should you simply have an older machine or maybe you have your last PC lying
around doing nothing since being replaced by your new multimedia, voice-activated,
coffee-making,dog- walking, do everything computer.
In either case, PROBE can do the job. It only needs DOS 3.3, 640K ,a
serial port and hard drive. What could be simpler? No extended memory, no expanded
memory(although it will make use of EMS/XMS if available) , no CD-ROM driver and
multimedia extensions installed. You get the point.
The only thing to really consider is that the older the machine, the slower it will run.
The slower it runs, the slower your scanning and searching will be. It may also be the
case that older PCs may have older UARTs which can not handle the higher data rates for
the serial port that we are all accustomed to seeing these days. This too will slow your
performance."
End Quote
I am pleased to see that Rich Wells also noted that optimizing the software ("make use of
EMS/XMS if available") AND optimizing the hard- ware ("older UARTs which can not handle
the higher data rates for the serial port") can have significant effects on the scanning
speeds of this setup.
Only since around 1995 did we have "Fast Uarts" or "16550 UARTs" that handles the serial
port data rates needed today. (for handling the
data rates of a common 33.600bps+ modem , for instance.)
All the "older" machines we are talking about here (including allmost every [if not
_every_] ,porable,laptop- and notebook) have old serial
port interfaces.
Quote:
"The only thing to really consider is that the older the machine, the slower it will run.
The slower it runs, the slower your scanning and searching will be"
End Quote
I want to ask the users of the Probe/2006+/456+ setup out there if they agree that this is
an issue to consider when otimizing the scanning speeds.
Are there for instance ways to upgrade the serial interfaces of older portables ? (I doubt
it, think that goes for all portables).
I think the only way to get an optimized scanning-speed is to use a 16550 UART ,these are
only found in post-1995 PC's or ones that has
been upgraded with a 16550 UART I/O card.
Regards,
Knut Otterbeck