Oh, Canada

[Janina Sajka]

Here's a device which just might make it possible to install Linux over a
serial port using even a plain old Braille 'N Speak for speech.

The following is from:

	http://www.realweasel.com/intro.html

   Regardless of which open-source operating system you prefer, we all
   agree on one thing: There's no better server price/performance than a
   consumer-grade Pentium-based* PC motherboard running Unix.
   [what_sucks.gif] 
   Until now, there's been a missing link. Unlike a "real" server, a PC
   with a conventional BIOS can't be fully administered from a serial
   (RS-232) console port. Sure, once the OS is up and running it'll
   support a serial console, but if you want to take the system down to
   the BIOS (to select a different boot device, for example), you have to
   drag out the video monitor and keyboard. In remote applications, that
   just isn't an option.
   Of course, this wouldn't happen in a smarter world. In our dreams, all
   BIOSen have serial drivers and automatically kick them in upon
   detecting the absence of a video board. Then we wake up, and they
   don't.
   Sigh. 
   [fixed_it.gif] 
   The PC Weasel 2000 provides the answer. It's an 8-bit ISA board that
   emulates the original IBM MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter)
   character-based video board and the PC keyboard. Plugged into an 8-bit
   or 16-bit ISA slot, it takes the characters written by your CPU into
   its "video" memory and pumps them out its onboard RS-232 port.
   Characters input by you into the RS-232 port are converted into
   keyboard scan codes and presented to the motherboard's keyboard
   connector.
   
   Whether you're using a dumb terminal next to your computer, dialing in
   via a modem connected to the PC Weasel's serial port, or on the other
   side of the world, connecting through an async server, your machine
   will think it has a local keyboard and monitor.
   [royal-weasel.jpg]
   The PC Weasel 2000 also contains a 16550 UART (configurable to the ISA
   address and interrupt of your choice), which provides your OS with its
   normal serial console port after boot. The PC Weasel's onboard CPU
   detects the initialization of this port at bootup and automatically
   switches the serial connector over to it, taking the MDA emulation
   offline. The PC Weasel's CPU then continues to eavesdrop on the
   console port, and can be brought online again with a user-programmable
   escape sequence.
   
   [swell.gif] 
   The PC Weasel distinguishes itself even further by being an
   open-source product. Every purchaser receives a source license for the
   Weasel's onboard microcontroller code. If you don't like some aspect
   of the board's behaviour as shipped by us, you're free to modify it
   using a gcc-based toolchain. The code store is flash memory that can
   be written without special equipment, and there's a second serial port
   provided for debugging.
   The PC Weasel 2000. Sure, it's weird. But we wouldn't have built it if
   we didn't need it ourselves.
                    ___________________________________


				Janina Sajka, Director
				Information Systems Research & Development
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

janina at afb.net



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