ISA bus via USB? Raspberry Pi? Beaglebone?
I have some 8, 16 bit ISA cards that I'd love to keep running. Are there any options such as ISA via USB? ISA on Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone? -- jeff jonas
time-wise, why not just get an IBM XT /clone and use that? I assume you already thought of this and don't have an XT lying around.... but what's the point if you don't have a system? Plus to really set up a USB solution you'd need an XT/AT system to confirm the USB solution works, at least for a while until you know for sure. b On Wed, Oct 2, 2024 at 12:14 PM Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I have some 8, 16 bit ISA cards that I'd love to keep running. Are there any options such as ISA via USB? ISA on Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone?
-- jeff jonas
Also, even if you were able to interface the ISA bus via USB, you still need software and drivers, which probably wouldn't be available on modern Linux embedded devices such as the Pi. I guess if you can tell us specifically which cards you are interested in using, we might be able to offer better advice. I probably wouldn't think it was worth the effort unless the board performed some specialized function (e.g. control some specialized piece of equipment). I can't imagine any world where it would be worth the headache for something commonplace like an Ethernet card, video card, etc. Devin On Wed, Oct 2, 2024 at 1:35 PM Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
time-wise, why not just get an IBM XT /clone and use that? I assume you already thought of this and don't have an XT lying around.... but what's the point if you don't have a system? Plus to really set up a USB solution you'd need an XT/AT system to confirm the USB solution works, at least for a while until you know for sure. b
On Wed, Oct 2, 2024 at 12:14 PM Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I have some 8, 16 bit ISA cards that I'd love to keep running. Are there any options such as ISA via USB? ISA on Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone?
-- jeff jonas
On Oct 2, 2024, at 12:13 PM, Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I have some 8, 16 bit ISA cards that I'd love to keep running. Are there any options such as ISA via USB? ISA on Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone?
I would point out that the PCI Express standard still maintains the subtractive addressing carve-out and I/O address spaces required for ISA cards, not least because some low-level elements of the PC architecture still use/emulate the old addresses. I believe there should be ISA expansion chassis available using commercially available bridge chips (a lot of PCIe serial cards are also just ISA or LPC (which is kinda-sorta serialized ISA) chips stapled onto a PCIe->ISA bridge chip as well) meant for industrial controls, but be warned that they're generally not cheap. There are also USB bridges, but I assume you'd need to write new drivers because there's no standard for tunneling ISA over USB like there is for PCI/PCIe. This is one such example. https://arstech.com/usb2-products/37-usb2isa-x3.html And it sounds like they also have a compatibility driver layer for it for many legacy operating systems: https://arstech.com/content/35-universal-software-layer For something like RPi or BeagleBone, you'd need to write your own drivers. - Dave
On 10/2/24 16:35, David Riley via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
PCIe->ISA bridge
Using Dave's info in gogle: F85526 PCI Express to ISA Bridge IC And https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=putHMSzu5og Rest of the exercises let to you: -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry kd2zrq@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies KD2ZRQ
Thank you for the replies, that's what I was thinking of. My google-fu was lacking, thus my asking.
I'm glad we could come up with something better than my idea :-) On Thu, Oct 3, 2024 at 9:11 AM John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Keep us posted how your ISA usage goes here. I'm at least curious. Thanks!
On Thu, Oct 3, 2024, 8:26 AM Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Thank you for the replies, that's what I was thinking of. My google-fu was lacking, thus my asking.
On 10/3/24 09:49, Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I'm glad we could come up with something better than my idea :-)
My opinion, the recommendation for an existing ISA mother board is valid. I think someone else noted one of the embedded systems with the PC104 bus. There should be an ISA bus adapter. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry kd2zrq@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies KD2ZRQ
I agree and I think that there is some need for it as long as they can make it work properly. I wonder how many people would try to find something like this? Personally, I’d love to plug a 16 bit or even eight bit ISA card into my current PC and test out some of these old cards. I am no computer engineer, so I can’t think of all of the issues, which I’m sure there are plenty, that would arise trying to engineer such an interface and adapter. I have mentioned here previously about a 5.25 floppy drive adapter to USB But currently that does not seem to be in the cards. (no this is not open for discussion.) Mike Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.
On Oct 3, 2024, at 10:17 AM, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On 10/3/24 09:49, Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I'm glad we could come up with something better than my idea :-)
My opinion, the recommendation for an existing ISA mother board is valid. I think someone else noted one of the embedded systems with the PC104 bus. There should be an ISA bus adapter.
-- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry kd2zrq@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies KD2ZRQ
I have some 8, 16 bit ISA cards that I'd love to keep running. Are there any options such as ISA via USB? ISA on Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone?
I personally run little 4-slot industrial ISA backplane systems for ISA cards that support something important in the shop, like one of the EPROM programmers, or the NI GPIB-410 test/debug/sniffer board. You get to choose the CPU board, anything from 386SX to high-end Pentium III are common and available. I can then run whatever OS supports it without any extra work, and the hardware is more reliable than consumer stuff from the era. It's also pretty small! I know that's not a direct answer to the question asked :P Thanks, Jonathan
participants (8)
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