Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Wish list

> From: Bruce Hassell <bmachine@...>
> One comment I would like to throw out, concerns the use of the ISA bus. It
> is true that there are truck loads of old pc's around and will be for
> awhile. But we need to keep in mind that the specs from Intel and MS call
> for doing away with ISA slots in the pc. I am seeing many new machines
> which do not have any ISA slots in them and this trend will continue. Just
> a thought.

I'll grant that what you say is true, but I think it's less of an immediate
problem for the following reasons:

1. Since Microsoft doesn't manufacture PCs, their minimum specs are only a
baseline, and most motherboard manufacturers are conscious of their
customer's need for ISA slots to host legacy peripheral cards. Since broad
appeal is important to them, I think they'll likely continue to provide one
or two at least for as long as ISA is supported by the chipsets they use. I
like to think of the switch to PCI only systems like the switch to the metric
system...

2. I use, sell, and recommend Intel motherboards and processors exclusively
(although I may rethink this position sometime soon). Intel wants to be rid
of the ISA bus, and that's bad news for me. Some of their newest boards are
PCI only, but these are mainly their "corporate" boards intended to be used
to build low cost desktop PCs, usually in microATX or NLX form factors. They
still make combination ISA/PCI boards in the ATX size. Intel will be the
first to kill off ISA completely, and when they do I'll have to switch to
another brand :( .

3. If we build an ISA card today, that work is usable in future boards that
have a PCI interface, or for that matter any other interface, because the ISA
bus is basically the CPU bus with buffering. Adding a PCI interface would
involve adding another layer of hardware to allow our ISA design to sit on
the PCI bus. See:

http://www.plxtech.com/products/9050/faqs/9050faq.htm

I know that an ISA card is not the ultimate answer, but it's AN answer that
can be realized soon, and used with minimal changes to existing software.
Once we have this in hand, further enhancements are possible without throwing
away too much of the preceding work.

Matt