Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Interface options, headless boxen, and remote control ...

Carol & Jerry Jankura wrote:

> I've just seen some computers advertised to be "legacy-free,"
> but they still have a couple of PCI slots in them. I suspect
> that the PCI slots are an artifact which will be removed in
> a year or two.

Did you mean ISA or really PCI? PCI is *NOT* a "legacy bus." In
fact, 533MBps (64-bitx66MHz) PCI as well as PCI-X are becoming more
commonplace.

"Legacy-free" means the LPC, PS/2, ISA and other "legacy" interfaces
and BIOSes are removed. But the PCI has nothing to do with these
interfaces. In fact, the way these components are usually added is
with a PCI-to-ISA bridge chip.

> Like it or not, I think that we'll be stuck with either
> building our own computers or doing something with either
> the USB or firewire. How long a lifetime do you expect
> your PCI card to have?

According to the PCI working group, at least another decade!
Although AMD and Intel have competing system interconnects for
on-board busses (Hypertransport for AMD and NGIO for Intel), the
"add-on" capability is still going to be PCI for quite awhile.

We're talking a _lot_ of apples-to-oranges here.

IC-level GBps -- e.g., AMD Hypertransport
Expansion-level high MBps -- e.g., AGP/PCI
External add-on low-to-mid MBps -- e.g., USB/1394

All we're talking about is removing ISA from the equation.

> Too bad that the IT fellows are pushing hard to eliminate all
> of the "features" that make these office machines attractive
> to the home shop.

Er, that's Microsoft *NOT* IT people. _Only_ Microsoft is trying to
"eliminate" all add-on hardware so it can tie your Windows copy to a
specific box -- because their "licensing mechanism" takes a snapshot
of select hardware. I don't know if it is just continued arrogance
or overall naivity (my experience in working with Microsoft directly
has been a combination of both), but UNIX workstation vendors have
been tying software licenses to the MAC address of the on-board
Ethernet for years. Since almost every chipset comes with an
Ethernet built-in today (even if they don't include the PHY chip and
connector), the MAC address is still there on the mainboard.

No, PCI is going to be around for quite a bit longer. Newer
chipsets from AMD, ViA, ServerWorks (whom Intel licenses) and others
even include multiple PCI busses which lead to higher overall
throughput.

-- TheBS

--
Bryan "TheBS" Smith mailto:b.j.smith@... chat:thebs413
Engineer Absolute Value Systems, Inc. http://www.linux-wlan.org
President SmithConcepts, Inc. http://www.SmithConcepts.com