> how many people remember what the other two functions were?
Game ( Joystick ) Port ?
In seeing if I could remember what they were, I came across a web site
called ... "die Jumper Site - The Jumper Site"
with jumper settings on A LOT of vintage hardware. In fact, it looks like
scans of the MicroHouse Technical Reference Library, so it might not last.
Samples of just the 8 bit ISA I/O cards
Text format at ...
http://www.totalhardware.de/i/iio8_t.htm
Pictures format at ...
http://www.totalhardware.de/i/iio8_i.htm
Pictures and Text format at ...
http://www.totalhardware.de/i/iio8_1.htm
Main Page at ...
http://www.totalhardware.de/
Best Regards
At 04:42 PM 4/2/03 -0800, you wrote:
> > > incompatible, and they had a giant surplus of serial (RS232 and current
> > > loop) cards that nobody wanted, so they provided a "FREE" serial card to
>
>On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Tony Duell wrote:
> > Why did 'mobody' want them? A serial port is a very useful thing to have...
>
>Because they occupied an entire slot (out of 5 on the PC), and other
>companies sold "multifunction" cards that could use the same slot for
>serial, parallel, clock, and memory. Most of those were marketed as SIX
>functions - how many people remember what the other two functions were?
>
>However, the IBM "Async" card could ALSO do current loop, which most of
>the after market cards could NOT.
>
>
> > One of the most stupid things IBM ever did was in the 5155 PortablePC.
>
>It has my nomination for the silliest design. (particularly when compared
>with the comparable Compaq machine which has all slots usable)
>
>--
>Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Wed Apr 02 2003 - 21:12:00 BST