ISA to PCI?

From: Bruce Lane <kyrrin_at_jps.net>
Date: Sun Apr 5 12:42:41 1998

Tim Hotze scribbled...

>the old ISA cards I've collected, I just got an AWE 64, and my scanner and
>PCMCIA cards are ISA-based. So, is it possible to make a device that will
>make an ISA card fit into a PCI socket? Is anyone making them?

        No one that I know of. In fact, I question that such a device is even
economically possible to the point that a company would want to try. The
architecture differences between PCI and ISA are enormous.

        The only thing I can think of that -might- stand a chance of working is to
construct some sort of sub-board that the ISA card would plug into. Said
sub-board would contain the necessary circuitry to implement an ISA-to-PCI
bridge.

        This means, at bare minimum, dealing with a 220-lead surface-mount PQFP
chip and its supporting components. That means lots of skill in engineering
such bridges, to say nothing of having access to schematic capture and PC
board layout tools that can handle advanced boards...

        Well, you get the idea. I'm not going to say "it can't be done" because I
think it can. It's just that I have neither the skill nor the desire to
attempt it. ;-)


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin_at_jps.net)
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
Received on Sun Apr 05 1998 - 12:42:41 BST