CNR slot for CNC?

first some background
as we are all aware the ISA bus is on the way out , 'legacy free' systems
seem to be the norm for new computers (the PCI->ISA bridge can cut
system preformance by up to 10% from one report) and the new
fast serial protocols are taking its place

so when I recently got a new motherboard with no ISA slots
(won it from http://www.xppcentral.com/ in the Seattle show)
I started looking into how to use the new CNR slot for CNC use
heres some of the stuff I found

from the
communication and networking riser (CNR) specification
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp/manuals/intel/cnrspec.pdf

the CNR bus signals include
SMBus (I2C) (http://people.freebsd.org/~nsouch/iicbus.html)
Microwire (can use SPI/Microwire DACs like the Maxim MAX541 )
USB (version 1 or 2)
AC`97 interface (audio and modem)
8 and 17 pin LAN interface

and power
+12v,-12v,+5v,+3.3v and Gnd returns

a quick search turns up many SPI/Microwire DAC chips and a few I2C DACs
from Maxim,Microchip,Analog devices and others (from 6 to 16 bit resolution)
that could be interfaced to the CNR bus as an add in card
the I2C bus could be used to communicate with many microcontrolers
as I/O expanders or for PLC functions

also from
http://www.netroedge.com/~lm78/index.html
under hardware hacking there is some info on interfacing to the SMBus
in the PC thru the memory slots and some source code for Linux drivers
in the download section

and at (long URL will wrap)
http://www.e-insite.net/ednmag/index.asp?layout=article&stt=000&articleid=CA170222&pubdate=10/11/2001
there is a parallel port DAC/frequency generator using an SPI/Microwire chip
(source code included) that may be usefull as a step generator for Gecko
drives
this looks like it could also be adapted to the CNR slot and expanded for
multiple outputs

hope this is usefull ,or at least interesting to someone :-)

Brian