TESTCOM Performance Tester Version 1.2
(c) 1995 Telesys GmbH, CH-8306 Brttisellen


This is a short manual.

Please read the file README.TXT, to see,
what TESTCOM does in general.


FEATURES:

- tests serial link throughput at up to 30'000 cps
  or more in full duplex mode on a 486DX/50
- up to 115'200 Baud (460'400 Baud with emulation card)
- COM1 to COM4
- IRQ2 to IRQ7 can be specified individually
- Fully bufferd and interrupt driven receive and transmit
- Full 16550 support from assembler level
- Maximize mode to test maximum speed
- Minimize mode to test optimum performance/speed



INSTALLATION:

If you have received TESTCOM in an archive, such as 
a ZIP file, place the contents of the archive in
a new directory.  

If you have received TESTCOM on a floppy directly
from Telesys GmbH, simply copy the files into
a new directory. 



COMMAND LINE REFERENCE:

Format: TESTCOM <Baud> [COMx [IRQx [<max.cps>]]]

You can not use the max.cps parameter, without using the
COMx and IRQx parameter too.

<Baud>: 300 - 115200 (effective upto 460kBaud)
[COMx]: COM1 - COM4, Default: COM3
[IRQx]: IRQ2 - IRQ7 (not PCI-bus), Default depends on COMx
[<max.cps>]: 0 - 50000 cps, Default 24000cps

Examples:

TESTCOM (shows help)
TESTCOM 19200 (tests at COM3 IRQ4)
TESTCOM 115200 COM1 IRQ4 (maximize up to 24'000cps)
TESTCOM 9600 COM4 IRQ7 500 (maximize up to 500cps)
TESTCOM 115200 COM2 IRQ

<Baud>:

You must make sure yourself, that the Baudrate is not too fast
for your system, such as when running from Windows or OS/2 as
a DOS task with limited CPU capacity. 

WARNING!

THROUGHPUT TESTS AT PERFORMANCE LIMITS CAN CAUSE OPEN FILES TO GO
LOST, WHEN RUN FROM BEHIND NON TRUE MULTITASKING ENVIRONEMENTS.
IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHICH FILE IS LOST, THE WHOLE APPLICATION RUNNING
IN PARALLEL OR EVEN THE OPERATING SYSTEM MAY CRASH. THEREFORE
YOU WILL HAVE TO USE THE TOOL CAREFULLY. IN GENERAL YOU ARE SAVE,
IF YOU NEVER DO BACKGROUND TASK TESTING ON SYSTEMS, WHICH CAN NOT BE
FULLY RESTORED FROM BACKUP TAPES IN AN ACCEPTABLE WAY.

COM port emulation cards, such as the Telelink TUSSI, can multiply
and fully ignore the Baud rate indicated in this parameter.


COMx:

You have to know, on which port you are testing.
If you have an old serial port with an UART 8250, you can not
use baud rates above 9600 baud.


IRQx:

You will also need to know, on which hardware interrupt your
com port is operating, if it is non standard.

Standard IRQs for COM1 to COM4 are:

COM1 : IRQ4    COM2 : IRQ3 
COM3 : IRQ4    COM4 : IRQ3

<max.cps>:

This parameter is only needed, if you plan to test throughputs
above 24'000 cps, or if you need to optimize speeds in minimize
mode. See the paragraph on TEST MODES later in this chapter.
Another good reason is to do decent testing, by starting
at low upper boudery limits. This however will not prevent
you from crashing overloaded systems, because the parameter
is adaptive and does not show his effect immediately.
Use the Baud parameter to limit speeds savely.


INTERNAL OPERATION:

TESTCOM sends one byte after the other by simply
counting from 0 to 255. The reception of
continuous counting bytes is used to
evaluate the characters per second (cps)
received and the errors. 

TESTCOM is a fully ISA-interrupt driven
DOS task. It can measure the top level performance.
The reason for the actual bottleneck however
can have many possible sources and will need
many tests with different environements.



TEST MODES:

TESTCOM can run in two modes. In maximize mode to test for
maximum performance. And in minimize mode to test for optimum
error free performance. Maximize mode is the normal mode
and needs no special command line parameter.

In maximize mode (max.cps > 0) the CPU delay is decreased as long
as max.cps is not reached. This measures the performance of serial
channels in optimal system environements.

In minimize mode (max.cps = 0) a smooth CPU delay is encreased as
long as there are errors. This measures the possible performance
in a practically given system environement.

You must specify all parameters to use minimize mode (see command
line syntax).



TEST RESULTS:

TESTCOM reports the type of serial UART chip found.
It will distinguish between bufferd UART (16550)
and non buffered UART (8250 or 16450).

The cps values in this test is "full duplex". You
might find, your serial port or modem to support two times
as much, but this is only simplex, such as in a ZMODEM file
transfer. You will also see any errors, that occur.

The throughput and the errors are reported for each second
separately. Therefore you might find your cps rate to toggle,
which is a buffer effect of regular reporting and not affecting
measurement by heavy calculating and screen printing.

The final report reflects the whole measurement.


SERIAL PORTS:

TESTCOM needs to directly operate on a true hardware
compatible COM port. This can be any UART 16552, 16550,
16450, 8250 on a serial ISA or PCMCIA bus card, modem
card or on serial ISDN adapter cards or on any equipement
emulating such serial ports, such as the Telelink TUSSI
serial card for speeds up to 460'400 Baud. Software
interface com port emulation such as fossil, EBIOS or
ISDN-cFOS drivers are currently not supported. Much of the
power of this tool is in operating correctly together
with the hardware at high speeds, and using interrupts
correctly, therefore it would loose a lot of its capabilities,
when running on software interfaces.




CABLING AND FLOW CONTROL:

The standard method of RTS/CTS flow control is used.
TESTCOM only needs the RS232 signal lines
TxD, RxD, RTS, CTS and Ground and is therefore
compatible with the situation given in normal
highspeed communications. You can't use a
normal link cable to test two PC's directly,
because Link Software doesn't normally use
RTS/CTS flow control. Therefore a Null Modem
Cable will most likely not be good.
You can order TESTCOM PACK with a link cable
and a full set of adapters, if you want to make 
sure, to test properly.



TEST ENVIRONEMENTS:

1) PC --- RS232-Loop-Connector (Rx-Tx und RTS-CTS)
2) PC --- Link-Cabel --- PC
3) PC --- Modem- or RS232-ISDN-link --- PC
4) PC --- Modem- or RS232-ISDN-link --- Loop-Connector

1) Test the serial card. If the CPU is slower, the CPU is tested.
2) Test a given system environement, before a communications link
   is added. Can also test half duplex by clamping RTS on one side only.
3) Test a communications link in duplex or half duplex mode.
4) Test any remote communications link in duplex mode.

