Re: which ISDN devices work with Linux?

Harald Milz (hm@seneca.muc.de)
Wed, 20 Aug 1997 20:22:00 +0200


Robert L Harris (nomad@rocky.orci.com) wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 5 Aug 1997, Robert L Harris wrote:
> >
> > > You might want to consider external otherwise it uses 2 IRQ's (One for each
> > > channel) whew external only uses the 1 for the com-port. Plus you don't
> > > have to do anything special to your kernel...
> > >
> > Wrong. All ISDNcards supported by Linux (except ICN) only use one irq.
> > ICN uses none at all.
> >

Don't mix 'em up, folks. The ICN card is a "direct" ISDN card, like the
Teles, Creatix and whatsoever. There is no UART on them, and you need a
special device driver like isdn4linux or U-ISDN to run them. No modem
functionality in hardware. Potentially no IRQ required. Runs transparent
HDLC, syncPPP, X.75 etc. whatever the device driver and user level software
allows.

The others are ISDN terminal adapters, external or internal. Look,
feel, taste and behave like modems. Internal TA's have UARTs & need
IRQs. External UARTs are connected to a free serial port but normally
you cannot use their full data rate when using both channels because a
serial ports normally only can do 115,200 bps. Neither requires special
drivers. In many cases you cannot run transparent HDLC over them but
you need async PPP or X.75. There are exceptions like the Zyxel 2864DI
which will run SLIP over the RS232 line and sync PPP over ISDN if you
like. U.S. TA's often have the NT built in.

http://www.muc.de/~hm/linux/linux-isdn.html. Needs some updates...