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Using the MPAP-200 with Syncdrive
Syncdrive is a synchronous communications software driver package designed to aid
users of Quatech synchronous communication hardware in the development of their application
software. Syncdrive is included free of charge with all Quatech MPA-series synchronous
communication products. The MPAP-200 is backward-compatible with software written for
Quatech ISA-bus synchronous adapters and it operates with Syncdrive.
Syncdrive, however, is not aware of the plug-and-play nature of PCMCIA cards. A
Syncdrive application will expect to see the MPAP-200 at a specific base address and a specific
IRQ. When using Syncdrive with PCMCIA cards, it is necessary to obtain the base address and
IRQ assigned to the card by the PCMCIA Card Services and provide those values in the channel
configuration array.
For DOS, Windows 3.1, or OS/2, the client driver or enabler supplied with the card must
be used to configure the MPAP-200 with the settings expected by the Syncdrive application
before the application tries to use the card.
Under Windows 95/98, the card is automatically configured. To find the settings, click
the right mouse button on the My Computer icon and select Properties. Select the Device
Manager tab and double-click the card's entry under the "Synchronous Communication" section.
Select the Resources tab to see the card's base address and IRQ. Use these settings with the
Syncdrive application. Windows 95/98 may allow changes to the settings if the "Use Automatic
Settings" box is unchecked.
Syncdrive does not receive notifications of card insertion or card
removal events. Therefore it cannot support hot swapping without the user taking some kind of
action to force the Syncdrive application to initialize a newly-inserted card.
A future release of Syncdrive may permit automatic configuration by retrieving hardware
settings from the MPAP-200 client driver. For now, the user should consider the client driver to
be a replacement for jumper settings; it sets the card in a predetermined configuration before the
Syncdrive application is started.
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