RE: Where do we go from here, was [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: A crazy idea

What about cardbus/pcmcia? Is this still a "current" technology as opposed
to ISA which is "legacy"? A couple of hundred bucks gets you a nice parallel
(not printer) I/O system based on an 8255 equivalent. With 24 available
lines, you could control quite a bit of stuff. Similarly, for the servo
folks, you can get a multichannel A/D (and D/A) card in this format as well.

Being able to program the 8255 for whatever I/O you need (all ports can be
programmed as I or O, and it offers some modes that provide unidirectional
or bidirectional data transfer with hardware handshake) is an advantage that
I haven't seen taken with most of the hobby type G-Code interpreters.

-- Jerry