re: VLB/EISA (The ISA EISA VESA question:) I bought a real mutant (SIS Chipset) motherboard from TC Computers back when (about 1992). It's a 486 '66, ZIF socket, with the following 8 slots: 2 ISA, and 6 EISA; 2 of which are <also> longer (VESA) slots. ---------------------- I got it for the following reason(s): I was trying to please everybody.. (foolish me ;-) My gal at the time wanted faster video & graphics performance for the clunky bloatware known as "Losedos 3.1"; and the VESA video "standard" promised faster 32 bit addressing and re-fresh, with about a 33 to 40 mhz bus-speed. Well, the VESA (STB) Video-card, and the VESA Multi I-O Card, really <are> noticably faster. I got the EISA slots, because I wanted to drop-in MicroWay tm Quadputer boards; each plug-in card having an i860 RISC chip with 8 MB memory; MicroWay promised 200 MIPS with 4 Boards, running Unix. (like the "back-plane" idea, taken from the Cray.) Well, the i860's really <do> cook.. remember, there were no 786's at that time.. and, a 486 chip alone cost me $ 540, with 1mb 30- pin simms going for $ 50. The ISA slots were for things like modems. The 32 bit, 33 MHZ EISA idea <was> sort-of adopted..it's closest "modern" equivalent is the "PCI" card slot.. Only, you could also plug-in <any> ISA card, in <any> slot, and, it would work. What irks me is that I thought I'd be guarrantee-ing "upgrade- ability" and "interoperability"; only, "Macro-Hard tm" pushed for "their" #&$?*! PCI bus-slots.) (arghhhhh!) Worse, IBM did the same; my PS 2/50 32-bit Micro-Channel slots "look" exactly like the EISA slots, only <reversed> front-to- back; but absolutely <nothing> else fits in them. I really wish all of the manufacturers would realize that the <only> solution is "real" cooperation and standard-ization, with "backwards-compatibility" for <all> components..<That> was the core-strategy of the EISA concept.. which would've worked. Best of all, EISA would've made <all> PC's; Survivor-PC's. "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee." Gregory. To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
