By Scott Courtney,
LinuxToday
Many of the IBM ThinkPad 600E, 600, and 770 versions contain an
MWave DSP (Digital Signal Processor) chipset which, among other
things, emulates a Winmodem. IBM has provided a closed-source
driver for this device previously, but the new version is released
under GPL version 2.
The modem driver consists of a kernel module and a userspace
application. Together, the two components emulate the
Linux-standard serial port device (ttyS*) and a Hayes-compatible
modem supporting the “AT” command set.
Previous versions of the driver, released under closed source
licenses, remain closed source. The new, open source version
supports kernels from 2.2.16 onward, according to the source
documentation.
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.
Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.