VLB SCSI? (really 64-bit PCI & 100Mb ISA)

From: Ken Seefried <ken_at_seefried.com>
Date: Mon Oct 29 11:01:30 2001

Wrapping up a few things here...

> <Re: 100Mb ISA cards>

3Com 3C515. Of course, you don't get full bandwidth out of it, but if you
really, really have to get an ISA-only box on a 100Mb network, it does work
quite well. And there's a Linux driver :-).

FWIW...the HP ISA 100Mb card is probably a 100baseVG card, which requires a
special hub.

> A typical example is the 64-bit PCI. I've seen several desirable
> cards offered for the 64-bit PCI, yet I've not seen even ONE advertised
> motherboard that actually supports 64-bit PCI.

Hmm...there are a bunch, actually. As far as motherboards (as in, not
systems) that you can run out to web sites and buy:

 - Intel boards based on ServerWorks and i860 have them, and they showed up
occasionally on earlier Xeon boards
 - Sun ATX form factor UltraSPARC boards have them
 - Later Alpha ATX form factor boards have them
 - At least one version of the Motorola MTX PowerPC ATX motherboard has them
(well...okay...this one is pretty obscure)
 - Finally...my odd/rare Galileo MIPS-based system has them...:-)

> From what I've read, 32-bit PCI boards work in a
> 64-bit slot, yet nobody seems to be offering that feature in their
> advertisement. I'd guess that's because it's cheaper/easier to
> diverge slightly from the published standard in making these products,
> hence they don't make claims about compatibility.

Umm...not sure what you are trying to say. As far as I know 32-bit & 64-bit
interoperability *is* part of the the PCI standard, and works vice versa.
In fact, I'm pretty sure per the standard, there is interoperability between
33MHz and 66MHz cards. You really only get locked out with 5v v. 3.3v
issues. In other works, a card that claims PCI 2.1 compliance will
interoperate.

Ken
Received on Mon Oct 29 2001 - 11:01:30 GMT