![]() NOTE: The original URL for Far Point disappears after May 12, 2015. After that, it is Red Chinese. F/MUX Parallel Port Multiplexor From Warp Nine Engineering The bulk of information on this page is from a pdf sent to me by the president of Warp Nine, Larry Stein. Easy Multiple Peripheral
Connectivity
Easy Peripheral Installation
There’s no complicated "balancing" or reassignment of IRQs or Interrupt Addresses. because F/MUX is an extension of the already installed parallel port. All that’s required is easy installation of necessary device driver software provided by each peripheral vendor, installation of F/MUX software, and simple attachment of F/MUX to the computer’s parallel port. F/MUX Software
Benefits to PS/2 ExpressPrint Users To quote IBM "Using vendor supplied multiplexer and software, users can attach up to four supported printers and output 300 dpi complex graphics at the rated speed of the printer and still have capacity left over.Compared to a direct LAN attachment, where data is sent over the LAN twice before being printed, the busmaster ExpressPrint Parallel Port not only reduces the load on the server processor, but prevents the LAN from being flooded with unnecessary printer traffic". What Happened to The F/MUX?
From the Designer
IEEE 1284 Compliant F/MUX is IEEE 1284 compliant, supporting all modes of operation including Compatibility or Fast Centronics Mode. This allows F/MUX to support multiple high-performance laser printers. along with Extended Capabilities Port (ECP) and Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) compliant CD-ROM players, external tape backup units, removable disk drives, SCSI adapters. or external LAN adapters. When an F/MUX is attached to an Enhanced Parallel Port, such as Warp Nine Engineering's F/PORT. (ISA, sigh!) it enables throughput up to 2 MB/second for increased productivity using multiple external peripheral devices. Fast High Volume Printing
Fast Parallel Port Connections
Features
Made in the U.S.A. Hmm, must be a typo here... To you folks in the EU, I suppose this won't mean much, but I've found US quality and reliability is usually worth the extra price. Plus, it's a lot easier to get technical support when it's in the same country. (Remember the Magnetek?) IEEE 1284 Driver Toolkit
Unknown if this supports the F/MUX. Or even the ExpressPrint port. More info as it comes in.
Disclaimer: I have not received anything from Warp Nine Engineering, other than product information and images. If this actually rises from the ashes, I will damn well buy one. And proceed to flog the heck out of it with as many things as I can. What good is technology if you can't abuse it? |