Why do all current PCI modems require MMX processor?

[Locoz]

My friend was trying to install a PCI modem into a PII (non-MMX) computer. The driver would not install, and to my dismay I found that the box stated the processor needed to be Pentium II MMX or higher. When I looked at all the other PCI modems in Office Depot, they all had this requirement. My question...

What do the multimedia extensions on a processor have to do with the PCI modems? Is it a driver limitation or a hardware limitation? Please, some hardware/driver guru explain this before my head explodes!

FYI, he returned the internal PCI modem, and I gave him my old US Robotics Courier v.everything external I had from my old BBS days. Worked like a charm ... what a fantastic piece of hardware it is.

Thanks!
Derek

 

[RedShirt]

All PII's have MMX... This should not be a problem.

The last Intel Processor not to have MMX (well, besides the Pentium Pro, which was released around the same time as this) was the Pentium 200.

There were also Pentium 166-233 MHz processors that had MMX (and even faster procs for notebooks).

If your friend has a Pentium II, it has MMX.

 

[Locoz]

Oops... I think it was the original Pentium. Nevertheless, it did not have the MMX instructions, and the driver installation software pointed it out *after* copying the driver files to the hard drive.

 

[RedShirt]

Well then, the drivers obviously take advantage of MMX technology. I guess they figured by now, anyone that was buying a new modem would have a computer that has MMX, since the technology is over 5 years old now.

It's probably just a matter of the driver writers being lazy and only writing drivers that are MMX optimized, it is probably easier for them to write the drivers in this way since MMX is supposed to simplify things some (Intel looked at certain tasks that would need many assembly instrucitons and decided to make a new set of instructions to simplify these tasks).

Basically, it all boils down to lazyness, but really... Not to many people are buying modems now adays for P200's or below.

 

[mastertech01]

Most PCI modems are Winmodems and have no internal processor like the hardware ISA modems primarily came with. This requires a lot of Processor utilization and the old original processors just cant hang.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Locoz
FYI, he returned the internal PCI modem, and I gave him my old US Robotics Courier v.everything external I had from my old BBS days. Worked like a charm ... what a fantastic piece of hardware it is. Thanks! Derek

Amen! I have two of those puppies - both upgraded to V90 - both rock solid when it comes to hanging on to crappy signals on dirty phone lines. They are my backups - normally use cable.

Anyway, Mastertech01 hit it on the head - the operative word is "WinModem" which translates as a cheaper solution, but not as good as real hardware.

 

[zephyrprime]

It's probably just a matter of the driver writers being lazy and only writing drivers that are MMX optimized, it is probably easier for them to write the drivers in this way since MMX is supposed to simplify things some (Intel looked at certain tasks that would need many assembly instrucitons and decided to make a new set of instructions to simplify these tasks).

Writing stuff with MMX is way harder than without MMX. MMX was *not* supposed to simplify some things but to speed up certain operations. That is why MMX is used on modems. MMX is really nothing more than some DSP type instructions for x86 and modem signal processing is a DSP sorta job (hence the "signal processing"). I feel pain for the guys that must have wrote the drivers for those modems because MMX sucks and is so incomplete. Doesn't even have a good multiply instruction. SSE2 is way better but I hope with SSE3 Intel finally provides a mostly complete vector instruction set for the ia32 series. Modems are one of the original usages that Intel had in mind when making MMX. Some of the others include graphics processing and audio processing.

Oh wait, this still doesn't provide an explantion for the original question. You see, back in the olden days when men where men and modem where modems, your line of reasoning about modems would have been entirely correct. Modems didn't have anything to do with MMX or the rest of the processor for that matter. But then as processors became faster and pci was invented and modems became stuck at 56k, people realized that all the signal processing thats necessary to make a modem work could be done by the processor. Processors had become fast enough with MMX (which was made for signal processing and such). So, modem manufacturers started making "software modems". Software modems had drivers while orginal "hardware modems" didn't need drivers. All the signal processing that used to be done by hardware on the modem was now done by the driver using the might of you Pentium MMX. Virtually all modems now sold are software modems. I believe it's still possible to buy a hardware modem but I can't be sure.

 

[Bluefront]

Huh...The other day I installed a generic Compusa modem, pci, Pactel chip, on a Pentium-pro....non-mmx I guess. Works just fine. I think it was $15...threw the box away already.