Re: Hayes Compatibility

[et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black)]

Scott Alfter (salfter@salfter.dyndns.org) writes:
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> In article <bm5jts$20d6$1@merope.saaf.se>,
> Paul Schlyter <pausch@saaf.se> wrote:
>>In article <Xns940FAE783FAFBnntpspamkosturnet@209.53.75.21>,
>>Andre Kostur  <nntpspam@kostur.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> Generally what's meant there is "Hayes AT command set compatable".
>>> In the 15+ years I've been in computing, I've never personally run
>>> across a modem that _wasn't_ Hayes AT compatable....  I'd try just
>>> hooking up whatever modem you've got, and try that....
>> 
>>A modem I got 16 years ago could be configured for either Hayes
>>compatibility or CCIR compatibility (which used a totally different
>>syntax for its commands).
>> 
>>Some 20 years ago, non-Hayes compatible modems vere not uncommon.  In
>>general, these modems had no command set at all.  So you had to dial
>>the number manually on your phone, and when you heard the modem
>>signal from the other end, turn on your modem and hang up your phone.
> 
> The very first modem I used with my IIe was a Zoom 300-bps internal
> modem...borrowed that from someone in another dorm and used it for a few
> months until I got a DataLink 2400.  IIRC, it wasn't Hayes-compatible and
> the only software that worked with it was what came with it.  It had some
> other means by which it could dial numbers, though.
> 
Until Hayes came along, modems weren't intelligent.  Well, maybe
some of them were, but we didn't hear much about them.  Mind you,
Hayes was there just as there was a need for consumer modems, and
the speeds were slow and most people were just becoming aware of
modems.

300baud and lower, which would have been the case back then, wasn't
much more than an oscillator that could be shifted between two
frequencies, and some sort of detector that could differentiate
between those two frequencies.  It just needed to be hooked to
a serial port, and it didn't need anything beyond that.  You could
dial by hand, using the existing telephone.

It was Hayes who made modems intelligent (or at the very lest
made intelligent modems common), by putting a computer in the modem
and setting out the command set.  I'm not sure how important it
was in the beginning, other than to add simple dialing, but obviously
it didn't take much time before there was more you could do, and
as modems became faster, the microprocessor was doing more than
just handling the command set, since modems became more than those
simple oscillator/detectors of the lower speeds.
  Michel