Matt Dillon has enabled the SIO FIFO (1655x) (don’t ask me what that is…) to reduce latency when that little spinning / | \ – bar thing runs during inital boot.
I note this just so I can say: “DragonFly – we even twiddle fast.”
A running description of activity related to DragonFly BSD.
And to think, Linux doesn’t even twiddle at all ;^)
It’s the buffer in the last common design of PC serial chip (which is implemented as part of your southbridge, these days). Guess not using it was causing something noticable now that the serial console’s enabled by default.
If I remember right, the real original 16550 had some sort of bug, and you needed to find a 16550A? 16550AFN? to ensure operation with it on would be reliable. Ancient history, now.