265 lines
7.5 KiB
HTML
265 lines
7.5 KiB
HTML
<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>Possible Problems</TITLE
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TITLE="The Basic Procedure"
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HREF="procedure.html"><LINK
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REL="NEXT"
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TITLE="Acknowledgements"
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HREF="acknowledgements.html"></HEAD
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WIDTH="10%"
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><A
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HREF="procedure.html"
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>Prev</A
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WIDTH="80%"
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HREF="acknowledgements.html"
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>Next</A
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CLASS="SECT1"
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><H1
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CLASS="SECT1"
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><A
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NAME="PROBLEMS"
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>5. Possible Problems</A
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></H1
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><P
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>If you have problems, you may find that this is due to conflicts
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between your BocaBoard and systems with dual IDE controllers. According to
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Kevin Traas:</P
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><A
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NAME="AEN82"
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></A
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><BLOCKQUOTE
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CLASS="BLOCKQUOTE"
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><P
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>Is the kernel recognising the board? (i.e. Right at the start of
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the boot process, all sixteen ports should be listed on screen with ttySxx, I/O
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Port, and IRQ identified.) Also,
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<B
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CLASS="COMMAND"
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>setserial -bg ttyS*</B
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> should list *every* port in
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your system.</P
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><P
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>By default, the BB2016 is configured to use IO Ports between
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0100 and 017f. This creates problems on systems with two IDE controllers. The
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second controller, ide1, uses 0170-0177 which falls into this range. Big
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problems!!!</P
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><P
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>So, the solution, in my cases, is to go with an IO base of 0200
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through 027f. I haven't had any conflicts in this region; however, you may want
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to check you system to be sure. (run
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<B
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CLASS="COMMAND"
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>cat /proc/ioports</B
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> - better run
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<B
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CLASS="COMMAND"
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>cat /proc/interrupts</B
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> to make sure IRQ 12 isn't
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used either.)</P
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><P
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>Once you've found an IO range and IRQ that isn't used, you'll
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have to change the jumpers on the BB2016 and edit
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<TT
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CLASS="FILENAME"
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>/usr/src/linux/drivers/char/serial.c</TT
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> to reflect the new
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settings. Then, compile the kernel and install as per normal.</P
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></BLOCKQUOTE
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><DIV
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><H2
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><A
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NAME="ADDITIONALINFO"
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>5.1. Additional Information and Service Comments</A
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></H2
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><P
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> If you want to use your new Boca card with any standard DB-25
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RS232 connector, you will have to get a special breakout box, which costs about
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$80. The card itself comes with a breakout box that plugs into the card through
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a truly formidable cable. It then supplies phone-like cables for the ports. The
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special $80 box has phone-like cables that plug into the breakout box included
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with the Boca card; you can then plug your modems or terminals into standard
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RS-232 connectors on the box. Unless you actually have a system that accepts
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the phone-like connectors, you should add the price of the box to the cost of
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the card when comparing it to other alternatives.</P
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><P
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>I got my Boca 2016 card through a special wholesale deal that I
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don't think many people will be able to reproduce. It was available quickly.
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However, the breakout box for RS-232 took about two weeks to ship. You should
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be aware of your need for this box before you acquire the card. The 2016 board
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was $235 and the additional box was $79.95.</P
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><P
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>I've heard that this breakout box is no longer available, and
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that now people just have special cables made. I'm not sure how you would go
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about doing this, though.</P
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><P
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>Only one port of my first Boca 2016 worked. I called Boca,
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expecting to hear a long string of questions and advice. When they said,
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"Linux? What's that?" I feared the worst. However, upon hearing my actual
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problem, they cheerfully told me that the card was defective and I should send
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it back; full 5-year factory warranty, 30-days exchange. I was struck by how
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cheery the lady was. It was as though they were expecting the worst, and very
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kindly making the most of it!</P
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><P
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>I had my hardware guy exchange the card. Unfortunately, the
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cards were back-ordered and they took about two more weeks to give me my new
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card. I have to say that I was quite annoyed at this, since I was anxiously
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chomping at the bit to get this thing up and running. </P
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><P
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>Some people have problems with ports past the first eight. I
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have tested my card up to port 11 and all the ports appear to be working. Boca
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Research quality control may be lacking; I would recommend that people with
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troubles with the card call Boca and deal with them directly. I suspect that if
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I'd exchanged the card directly through the factory I would have had better
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service than through my dealer. The factory people were all quite nice and
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eager to please.</P
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><P
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>Right now, I have only four phone lines. I bought the 16-port
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card for two reasons: because it has modem control (unlike the smaller ones),
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and in anticipation of future expansion. </P
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><P
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>Some additional information on this subject from Kevin Traas of
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Baan Business Systems™: </P
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><A
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NAME="AEN101"
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></A
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><BLOCKQUOTE
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CLASS="BLOCKQUOTE"
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><P
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>BTW, I've used the BB2016 several times and found them to work
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really well under Linux. I'm extremely happy with them. They perform very well,
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are very inexpensive, and are reliable. They claim 115200 bps per port. I've
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got a unique situation whereby I've got two systems with a PPP serial link
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between them. I'm running this link at 115200 and I experience almost 0% error
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rate (with hundreds of thousands of packets transmitted). My next step is to
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implement EQL and additional PPP links between the boxes to increase the
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bandwidth. We'll see how it goes.</P
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><P
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>One final note. Contrary to the suggestion in the HOWTO, I
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build my own cables for the BB2016 (they've got RJ ports on them). At first, I
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"dabbled" with RJ45-8 conductor plugs, but the BB2016 has RJ48-10 conductor
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jacks, so to get full modem support, I ended up going that route.</P
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><P
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>I now run all 10 wires between the BB2016 and my modems. It
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works great! No problems, no regrets! The only initial problem I had was
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finding a source for RJ48 plugs, 10 conductor wire, and RJ48 to DB25
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adapters. None of these are very cheap due to the low demand. Oh, yeah, and
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you need an RJ48 crimper as well.</P
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><P
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>If you want, I can build these cables for you and send them
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to you. If you're interested, e-mail me and I'll let you know pricing, etc. I
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found building my own was cheaper than the adapter that is mentioned in the
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HOWTO - which I couldn't find a source for anyway.</P
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></BLOCKQUOTE
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><P
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>I believe the adapter mentioned in this document is no longer
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being manufacturered, leaving cables such as your own the only remaining way of
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connecting the device.</P
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></DIV
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="procedure.html"
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>Prev</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="index.html"
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>Home</A
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></TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="acknowledgements.html"
|
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>Next</A
|
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></TD
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
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>The Basic Procedure</TD
|
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
|
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VALIGN="top"
|
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> </TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="right"
|
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VALIGN="top"
|
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>Acknowledgements</TD
|
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></TR
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></TABLE
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> |