Dear Chad,
As noted below, you do need the utility that comes with each
EISA card to configure the card, and you also need to have a driver
file for each EISA card, specialized for the particular OS that you
are using. As the first followup to the question notes, Novell
Netware EISA files are usually available, but I doubt that they will
be available from the manufacturer, or anywhere else out there, for
use with any sort of UNIX flavor. This is partly what caused EISA's
demise.
However, the great thing about EISA was that the slots were still
ISA slots, too. If you use ISA cards, you'll be just fine, and don't
need the additional driver software for EISA cards. You will
probably need to do some fooling around in the BIOS Setup
screens, to tell the system that there are no longer EISA devices in
it, but you should be able to get the system to work, albeit without
the speed advantages of the EISA bus.
We have a couple of systems here that we use as servers, with
EISA busses and NetWare, and it is a bit of a pain to add/remove
peripherals... but they've provided very good service between times,
with hardly any work having to be done on them.
Hope this helps,
Anthony J. Albert
On 27 Sep 99, at 10:33, Hal Hanson wrote:
>At 03:35 AM 9/27/99 +0500, you wrote:
>>Hello Everyone,
>>I got a new computer, it's a Unisys server with an EISA bus. I know it is
>>32-bit and was designed to compete with Micro Channel. Does anybody here on
>>this list have any personal experience with EISA?
>>
>>My main concern is this:
>>I want to explore OpenLinux or SCO Openserver, so I will be erasing the hard
>>disks.....Don't EISA cards require special drivers or config files?
>
>There is a DOS based configuration utility that configures the EISA subsystem much
>like the IBM Microchannel systems. The utility is provided by the motherboard/system
>vendor. In addition to that utility you will need a file for each card that tells the
>config utility about the card. The file
for each card is provided by the card vendor. I do not have a Unisys but I do have a
generic clone 486DX2-50 EISA board running Netware 4.1 in my office that I have some
special purpose DOS based systems attached via Token Ring.
>
>>I think the SCSI cards are Adaptec, but haven't dug deep enough to be sure.
>>I don't know about anything else.
>>
>>
>>>From the Unisys 386DX-33 of
>>Chad A. Fernandez in Battle Creek, MI USA
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Computer Services - University of Maine, Presque Isle
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