>At 08:45 AM 2/11/99 +1300, you wrote:
>>Can someone tell me what a Winmodem is? I see it mentioned alot on the
list.
>
>A Winmodem is basically a modem that only has one processor on it instead
of
>two. I can't tell you exactly what the processors do on a modem, but I can
>tell you that two are required. With a Winmodem, the one on-board processor
>does it's job, while the duty of the second is performed by the main CPU of
>the
>computer. On a "real" modem, these duties are performed on the modem
itself.
>Hence, they leave your main CPU free to do more "real" processing.
>The main pluses to a Winmodem are price. They are cheap to produce. With a
>fast enough main CPU, you won't really notice the speed decrease that would
be
>present on a 486 or slower machine. This is why they "require" a Pentium or
>higher CPU. Drivers are only available to allow these modems to work in
>Windows. Here we come to the main drawback even if you have enough
processing
>power to run one....They will not work in DOS, Linux, Unix or any other
>operating system besides Windows.
>
>I have owned both Winmodems and "real" modems and I can tell you from
personal
>experience, it is worth it to spend a little extra a get a "real" modem.

I believe that both of the modems that you described are "WinModems". I
believe that you have described the difference between a "SoftModem" and a
"HardModem". I use both "Hard"  and "Soft" modems. The soft modem does use a
single chip and the hard modem uses a dual chip board. Both however are
"WinWodems" in that they have to use the OS or drivers to assign the IRQ and
Com settings. A non-winmodem or "RealModem" and I use these as well, in DOS
and other OS systems, have jumpers so that you can set the Com and IRQ
settings on the modem itself.

All of the above have there place and work well under the right conditions.
In any case you should be able to purchase a dual chip modem "Hard" V/F/D
56K for under $40 and a single chip "Soft" modem for around $30.

Dennis Noble
www.computersalacarte.com

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