Uncreative Labs

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 3:20 am

Is there such a beastie ever made?
i've some things i want to try with, and that is one of them

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

If you have the cash...

http://www.cyberresearch.com/store/computer-accessories-pc-peripherals/bus-adapters-expansion-chassis/PRO_700_3228.2.htm

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 9:28 am

i've got the cash, but good lord

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

you might try for the USB->ISA adapters, they are a bit more common and "may" be had at used prices if you can find an older unit.

Now what I would like to see is a ISA -> PCI bridge adapter so I could get standardized USB on isa systems.

Good Luck

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 12:18 am

i'm not sure that would work, if your handy with electronics, you could try it, but i wouldn't expect the usb to operate very fast at all, you'd have to downspeed the pci ti 8 or 4.77mhx

Joined: 20 Sep 2009 Posts: 7

"The PRO 700 is a PCI-to-ISA bus extender kit, allowing you to attach ISA cards to a PC with a PCI slot. "

Why on earth would you want to put an ISA card into a machine with a PCI bus? No ISA card can compete with even an early PCI card. I would think the reverse would be more desirable. For $600 I'd just buy a new computer and forget about both ISA and PCI entirely.

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

OldComputerGeek wrote:

Why on earth would you want to put an ISA card into a machine with a PCI bus? No ISA card can compete with even an early PCI card. I would think the reverse would be more desirable. For $600 I'd just buy a new computer and forget about both ISA and PCI entirely.

For companies that have test equipment that needs an ISA slot, $600 is cheaper then having to spend 10X that to redo the fixture.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Quote:

For companies that have test equipment that needs an ISA slot, $600 is cheaper then having to spend 10X that to redo the fixture.

And right off hand, I can think of 5 different pieces of equipment in my last job that had to run off of DOS and a 386sx CPU...

Joined: 20 Sep 2009 Posts: 7

T-R-A wrote:

Quote:

For companies that have test equipment that needs an ISA slot, $600 is cheaper then having to spend 10X that to redo the fixture.

And right off hand, I can think of 5 different pieces of equipment in my last job that had to run off of DOS and a 386sx CPU...

And we wonder why we're falling behind the rest of the world in high tech. Still using DOS on a 386sx with ISA slot peripherals in 2009. Sheesh.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

"And we wonder why we're falling behind the rest of the world in high tech. Still using DOS on a 386sx with ISA slot peripherals in 2009. Sheesh."

It's not a always matter of speed (or technology, or user/hardware interfaces). In most cases (as in everything) it just comes down to money. It simply was just plain cheaper overall to allow a DOS-based "slow" machine to do the testing on a PWB assembly or run an oven (the two instances that immediately come to mind) than spend it developing other hardware/software to merely "keep up". Classic case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". And for that matter, up until the time that Intel stopped producing them (seems like 2007), we built new assemblies with 386sx chips on them (robotic controllers as I recall).

And if you think that was low-tech, I worked for a company that in 1994, was still building circuit-boards using DTL (diode-transistor logic). Again, an issue of cheaper vs. newer. (Look here if you don't know how far behind that was). When Motorola stopped producing it in '93, I became an expert in sourcing obsolete components. Many of the ones we used thereafter had date codes from as far back as 1969...

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 2:22 am

doesn't intel still make the 8088/8086 and 80186/80188 for embedded things like traffic signal controllers and simple stuff like that? quite remarkable the 386sx had a production run of around 80 years i believe

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Quote:

doesn't intel still make the 8088/8086 and 80186/80188 for embedded things like traffic signal controllers and simple stuff like that?

Probably, since it's a much less expensive design (wafer-wise), but the reason for discontinuing the 386sx was cheaper for Intel (and it forced a redesign to newer CPUs---more expensive for the end-user)

Quote:

quite remarkable the 386sx had a production run of around 80 years i believe

If you mean it's last production run, I dobut that they have that much stock (for the reason mentioned above---more profitable to force a redesign on the user's end). 20 years (for repairs) I could believe, but given the current pace, I seriously dobut 80...

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

k2x4b524p wrote:

doesn't intel still make the 8088/8086 and 80186/80188 for embedded things like traffic signal controllers and simple stuff like that? quite remarkable the 386sx had a production run of around 80 years i believe

Nothing like windows 1929, it was made of glass and steel gears back then, you could add or subtract using movable gears.

Joined: 20 Sep 2009 Posts: 7

ryan wrote:

k2x4b524p wrote:

doesn't intel still make the 8088/8086 and 80186/80188 for embedded things like traffic signal controllers and simple stuff like that? quite remarkable the 386sx had a production run of around 80 years i believe

Nothing like windows 1929, it was made of glass and steel gears back then, you could add or subtract using movable gears.

Or a copy of Windows AE (Abacus Edition) unearthed from ancient Chinese ruins. Laughing