A Winmodem is a software modem designed to work with the Microsoft Windows operating system. A traditional modem uses hardware to perform its tasks, but Winmodems perform their key tasks with software. This makes them smaller and cheaper to produce, but it also means they cannot be easily used on other operating systems because the driver support requires far more effort to produce. In addition, they consume some of the CPU cycles on the computer to which they are attached, which can slow down application software on older computers. (They are sometimes referred to as a "port-on-a-stick.") Because they do so little by themselves, a computer program could use a Winmodem as something other than a modem; for example, it could emulate an answering machine. Having most of the modulational functions delegated to software does serve to provide the advantage of easier upgradability to newer modem standards.
Winmodems have earned a certain notoriety for slowing down their computer systems and for having buggy drivers, although this reputation was largely garnered during the period of their introduction to the mass-market, whereupon they were oft to use substandard drivers, and be found in entry-level computers with slow CPUs. Any such reputation has not, however, halted their market popularity, and it is typical for any internal 56k-modem produced today to be a software-based modem.
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