Software Modems » History » Revision 9
Revision 8 (laforge, 06/29/2022 08:49 AM) → Revision 9/11 (manawyrm, 06/29/2022 08:55 AM)
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h1. Software Modems
(sometimes also called _WinModems_)
h2. What is a Software Modem
Traditional analog modems are based around hardware modulators/demodulators, typically some kind of DSP or VLSI chipset including some kind of internal processor / software. They are basically an embedded system with two external interfaces:
* the analog phone line interface
* a RS-232 serial line towards a terminal or computer
As desktop computers and laptops became more powerful around the turn of the century, various manufacturers started to implement _software modems_. Those modems only contained the analog line interface and an ADC/DAC. All the actual signal processing (equalizer, modulation, demodulation, coding/decoding, etc.) happened in software running on the main processor of the desktop/laptop computer (typically an x86 CPU).
The related proprietary software for the main CPU was typically specific to a given vendor/chipset, and was offered in most cases only for Windows type operating systems, hence also the name _WinModem_. There were some exceptions where binary-only software was also offered for Linux or other OSs.
h2. Models/Types of Software Modems
h3. PCTel HSP
One of the early providres of softmodem chispsets; acquired by Conexant in 2003.
h3. Lucent K56flex
The "Lucent K56flex":http://web.archive.org/web/20000301221617/http://www.lucent.com/micro/K56flex/doc.html was a series of chipsets (Apollo, Mars, Venus) and associated line interface circuits supporting V.34 and/or V.90 standards
* "Venus datasheet":http://web.archive.org/web/20000830071329if_/http://www.lucent.com:80/micro/K56flex/PN99174.pdf with block diagrams for ISA/PCI/PCMCIA/USB attached versions
See also modemsite.com for "Apollo/Mars":http://modemsite.com/56k/ltwin.asp, "Venus":http://modemsite.com/56k/venus.asp, "Scorpio":http://modemsite.com/56k/lucentamr.asp and "Wildwire":http://modemsite.com/56k/wild.asp chipsets.
h3. Lucent AMR / Agere Systems
*Lucent Technologies* provided another softmodem implementation for Linux in the early 2000s, it was also distributed as binary object files for x86 CPUs.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070718125119fw_/http://www.sfu.ca/~cth/ltmodem/#sources
h3. Rockwell/Conexant
*Rockwell International* (a major manufacturer of low-cost chipsets for _hardware modems_ since the early 1990s) spun-off their semiconductor division into *Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, Inc* in 1996, which subsequently became *Conexant Systems, Inc*
The *HCF* family of chipsets did still include a DSP, for firmware updates see http://modemsite.com/56k/hcf7.asp
The *HSF* family was a full-soft-modem, see http://modemsite.com/56k/soft56.asp for details.
They built a number of soft-modem chipsets, such as
* "CX11252":https://web.archive.org/web/20050407083606/http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=163 (HSFi PCI)
* "CX11256":https://web.archive.org/web/20050407083606/http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=162 (SmartHSFs PCI)
* "CX06836":https://web.archive.org/web/20050407083606/http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=161 (HSF USB)
* "CX11254-31":https://web.archive.org/web/20050407083606/http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=160 (SMartMC 3S AC-Link)
* "CX11254-51Z":https://web.archive.org/web/20050407083606/http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=925 (SmartMC3Z HDA)
* "CX20468":https://web.archive.org/web/20050407083606/http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=159 (SmartAMC)
* "CX20493":https://web.archive.org/web/20050407083606/http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=857 (SmartDAA line side)
h3. Cirrus Logic / Ambient Technology / Intel
Cirrus Logic developed hardware and software modem chipsets. The modem division was later spun-off as Ambient Technologies and finally acquired by Intel.
The softmodem chipsets include the The MD563x (PCI), 537EP (PCI) and 537EA (AC97).
More information can be found at http://modemsite.com/56k/intel.asp
h3. Motorola HSP
FIXME
h3. Smartlink
There were three common variants/configurations of Smartlink softmodems:
* AMR/CNR/ACR/MDC/MiniPCI: HAMR5600 or SL2000 + Si3012 or Si3014
* PCI: PCI chip + HAMR5600 or SL2000 + Si3012 or Si3014
* USB: ST7554 (controller) and STLC7550 (Modem AFE)
See http://modemsite.com/56k/smartlink.asp for more information
h4. slmodemd
smartlink is one of the few vendors who provided Linux drivers for their modems, *slmodemd*. The actual modem code was a binary-only library pre-compiled for 32-bit x86 CPUs, which got linked into an (open source) daemon.
There is an experimental (but well working) yate module which links against slmodem and makes it usable for answering modem calls dynamically called "shadysoftmodem":https://github.com/Shadytel/shadysoftmodem .
h3. IBM MWave
FIXME
h3. 3Com / USRobotics
FIXME
h3. MC97 / AC97 Modems
At some point, the AC97 standard for mainboard-based _sound card_ functionality was extended so that the audio software stack could not only drive the analog audio codec for multimedia purposes, but also drive a specific "telephone line interface codec IC" with associated analog line interface. This meant that the modem would basically show up as a second audio device on the PC.
The actual "telephone line interface codec IC" together with the analog interface circuitry was often not put on the mainboard of the PC or Laptop itself, but implemented via an add-on card. See [[AMR_Modem_Riser]] for more information.
h2. Open Source Software for Software Modems
There were several different projects that implemented software modem functionality. The lack of a standard interface (software API or hardware interface) towards the analog line circuitry meant that the projects are usually only usable with very specific harware and not interchangeable.
h3. spandsp
"spandsp":https://github.com/freeswitch/spandsp (originally released on https://www.soft-switch.org/) is a library of DSP functions for telephony created by Steve Underwood.
Its primary use case was to send/receive Fax over analog phone lines in the software VoIP/PBX systems (iaxmodem, Asterisk, CallWeaver and FreeSwitch)
h3. linmodem
[[linmodem:]] is a softmodem implemented by "Fabrice Bellard":https://bellard.org/ originally released at https://bellard.org/linmodem/ - some Osmocom mebers have done some small improvements to make it build on mordern Linux distributions and have plans to further extend it, see the "issue tracker":https://osmocom.org/projects/linmodem/issues and "git repository":https://gitea.osmocom.org/retronetworking/linmodem
Supported Standards: V.8, V.21, V.23
Incomplete Standards: V.34, V.90
h3. ArduinoModem
This is not really a _contemporary_ software modem, but a retrocomputing project by @supersat
"ArduinoModem":https://github.com/supersat/ArduinoModem is a project implementing Bell 103 (300 bps) on an arduino microcontroller. It allegedly is loosely based on https://web.archive.org/web/20120110020118/http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slaa037/slaa037.pdf and https://web.archive.org/web/20130512113608/http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slaa204/slaa204.pdf
Supported Standards: Bell 103
h3. btx_modem
"btx_modem":https://github.com/Casandro/btx_modem is a software implementation of the V.23 standard used in retrocomputing applications for the German [[retronetworking:BTX]] system.
Supported Standards: V.23
h3. fisher-modem
"fisher-modem":https://github.com/randyrossi/fisher-modem is a software modem implementation by Dr. Tony Fisher.
Supported Standards: V.21, V.32, V.29
Incomplete Standards: V.32 originate, V.34 originate
h3. app_softmodem
"app_softmodem":https://github.com/proquar/asterisk-Softmodem is a software modem for use with Asterisk
Supported Standards: V.23, V.21 and Bell 103, but also V.22 and V.22bis
