quick question: What's the difference between a "Hardware modem" and a "Software modem"?

[TweakageMan]

Can anyone please tell me the difference between a hardware modem and a software modem? And what are the advantages to getting the hardware one? I am ordering a modem and I noticed two different prices:

($75) USR 56K V.90 w/ Voice OEM
($30) USR 56K V.90 Software Modem w/ Voice OEM

 

[bgeh]

a hardware modem has an on-board chip to process information
a software modem uses the cpu's clock cycles to process information

 

[Shagga]

I believe the fundermental difference is that on a Hardware Modem the decoding of the signal is done in Hardware, i.e. by the modem. A software Modem relies on the CPU to do the decoding therefore taking up CPU cycles and possibly slowing things down a bit. However, there is one member particularly which will go at pains to tell us that is not the case.

[edit]

Damn...beat me to it.

 

[TweakageMan]

Ah I get it. But..... how much CPU usage can a modem actually take up? I mean, maybe hardware modems were better back when there was 400mhz cpu's, but running a 2.1GHz, will having a software modem cause any NOTICABLE performance loss?

 

[bgeh]

nah, with current CPU's, you won't be able to notice a performance difference

 

[Shagga]

It is probably fair to think that and you may be right particularly if your just browsing the web, as for online gaming, I don't really know. But can you take the psychological issues of knowing your not running as fast as you possibly can? I would struggle...

[Edit]

Double damn, he gone done it again.

 

[dullard]

The CPU hit is completely unnoticible if you have a recent computer. From Anandtech's FAQ:

For instance, the CPU usage of a typical winmodem hovers below 5% on a Celeron 333. This is in the range of the power required by Windows to spin an hourglass cursor; it's certainly not something that will eat into your game play significantly. Once again, we see the benefit of an HCF winmodem solution, where the onboard DSP relieves much of the stress on the CPU. And now we have people running around with 1 GHz processors. Any drop in frame rate will barely be measurable, let alone visible.

I'd expect your CPU to be at least 10 times as fast. Thus at most it will eat up 0.5% of your CPU time.

 

[TweakageMan]

ROTFLMAO, I was surfing around and found this

It says "Beware software modems". Didn't realize how old it was. About half way down I read this:

There are a number of flaws in the soft modem concept. In all cases, your host computer has to do more work to make up for the modem's lack of hardware. One RPI modem user reported slow transfer rates and dropped connections until he upgraded his PC from eight to sixteen megabytes of RAM (which improves performance in Windows). IBM's minimum requirements for the 56K Internet Kit modem is a 486, but some features require a 90 MHz Pentium, and DSVD features require a 133 MHz Pentium.

OH NOS!@@

Guess all hope of running this modem with 8MB of ram is lost

 

[Shagga]

Originally posted by: dullard
The CPU hit is completely unnoticible if you have a recent computer. From Anandtech's FAQ:

For instance, the CPU usage of a typical winmodem hovers below 5% on a Celeron 333. This is in the range of the power required by Windows to spin an hourglass cursor; it's certainly not something that will eat into your game play significantly. Once again, we see the benefit of an HCF winmodem solution, where the onboard DSP relieves much of the stress on the CPU. And now we have people running around with 1 GHz processors. Any drop in frame rate will barely be measurable, let alone visible.

Here endeth this thread.

 

[TweakageMan]

Originally posted by: Shagga
It is probably fair to think that and you may be right particularly if your just browsing the web, as for online gaming, I don't really know. But can you take the psychological issues of knowing your not running as fast as you possibly can? I would struggle...

[Edit]

Double damn, he gone done it again.

I actually have a cable modem as my main source, it's great, uptime is near 100%, but in my business it's rather important that I stay connected to the internet at all times, and I figure for $30 for a modem, and $5 a month for 20 hours of internet, I can have a solid backup solution if my cable modem decides to go down all night

 

[TweakageMan]

Originally posted by: Shagga

Originally posted by: dullard
The CPU hit is completely unnoticible if you have a recent computer. From Anandtech's FAQ:

For instance, the CPU usage of a typical winmodem hovers below 5% on a Celeron 333. This is in the range of the power required by Windows to spin an hourglass cursor; it's certainly not something that will eat into your game play significantly. Once again, we see the benefit of an HCF winmodem solution, where the onboard DSP relieves much of the stress on the CPU. And now we have people running around with 1 GHz processors. Any drop in frame rate will barely be measurable, let alone visible.

Here endeth this thread.

Yeah. Software modems seem good... hopefully when I get it, it will run solid on Windows XP pro with no compatibility issues. I'd hate to see a $30 modem turn my $2800 computer into an unstable POS.

 

[billy2003]

stay far far away from winmodem. i have two computer. both tualatin 1.1a. one is with a usr 56k isa voice modem and the other a lucent chip modem. the usr connect at 54,66 while the lucent at 53. THe usr just seems more quick and faster in opening sites WHILE your downloaded stuff. People kept saying lucent is just as fast with a fast cpu while i found that to be not the case. in the end my isa usr was faster believe me

 

[butch84]

I'm pretty sure the only reason you would want a hardware modem these days is support for non-windows OSes. Im not posative, but im pretty sure most software modems wont work with linux and the like, while hardware modems will (or ar least more of them). If im wrong, somebody let me know.


peace,
butch

 

[Mem]

mean, maybe hardware modems were better back when there was 400mhz cpu's, but running a 2.1GHz, will having a software modem cause any NOTICABLE performance loss?

You`ll be fine,I`ve a Winmodem(HCF type that has a DSP) and a Hardware modem and get the same pings,connection/download speeds and I can`t tell any difference in gaming with my XP 1700+ cpu.

 

[Bleep]

I'm pretty sure the only reason you would want a hardware modem these days is support for non-windows OSes. Im not posative, but im pretty sure most software modems wont work with linux and the like, while hardware modems will (or ar least more of them). If im wrong, somebody let me know

There a lot of so called winmodems that will work in Linux but when they are used in Linux they are called Linmodems.

Bleep

 

[BFG10K]

Also I'd like to add that in some cases hardware modems are better than software modems if the line is noisy or unreliable. Of course it depends on the brand of the modem and on the type of line.