Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] I/O for the future

> Your idea of the USB to ISA adapter box sounds interesting. However, who's
> going to be making the ISA cards in a few years? I suspect that we'll do one
> of two things: We'll either start developing controllers that interface
> directly to the USB or Fire Wire or we'll go back to separate computers
> designed for control applications. Given the economics, I'm betting on the
> first alternative.

The thing is, since ISA is so similar to the native interface of most
of the interesting chips for motion control, a design for a USB-ISA
converter is about the same as the design for a generic USB 'front
end' building block that can be slapped onto any project which we
would today design for ISA. Of course if the converter is to be used
with a single chip you don't need any address decode in your circuit,
and perhaps it could be configured to provide 4-8 unmultiplexed
address lines for selecting on-chip registers so you save on that
latch, too. (driver software hacks would let you use these as chip
selects for multi-chip projects).

But basically, I'm looking to do the work of handling the new
interface once. And have to redo it only once for each upgrade to
Firewire or whatever.

Chris

--
Christopher C. Stratton, stratton@...
Instrument Maker, Horn Player & Engineer
22 Adrian Street, Somerville, MA 02143
http://www.mdc.net/~stratton
NEW PHONE NUMBER: (617) 628-1062 home, 253-2606 MIT