The standard allowed for 16-bit use, but no more AFIK. The IEEE696 standard
provided for 24 bits of address and 16 bits of data. However, since the
signals on the S-100 were designed for the old 8080 functonal model, and
most of the signals which were required to run a computer's bus were simpler
than the model around which the S-100 was designed, the adoption of the
standard simply served to kill the S-100 bus. What's more, with its on-card
voltage regulation, far too much heat was generated in these linear
regulators for the technology which was current. This required fans and
fans were noisy enough to be objectionable on the desktop, which was the new
environment for computers.
The '696 standard defined cards which wouldn't work with the old versions
and which required far too much fiddling with the newer processors' bus
control signals to allow for a simple and elegant design solution, so the
bus simply went away, more or less of its own weight.
A decent reference for the S-100, though not a web site, is the
Osborne/McGraw-Hill book Interfacing to S-100/IEEE 696 Computers by Sol
Libes and Mark Garetz. This should give you all you need if you can find a
copy.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Arfon Gryffydd <arfonrg_at_texas.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, March 18, 1999 12:30 PM
Subject: Re: S-100 bus specs
>Is the S-100 bus used in any current computers? Can it be expanded to
>16/32/64 bits?
>
>At 02:12 PM 3/18/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>Anyone know of a good reference on the web for the S-100 bus (pin
>assignments ect..)?
>>
>>TIA,
>>
>>Steve Robertson <steverob_at_hotoffice.com>
>>
>>
>>
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Received on Thu Mar 18 1999 - 14:06:37 GMT