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From: rei2!tsprad@uunet.UU.NET (6692)
Message-Id: <9306251913.AA11083@rei.com>
Subject: Re: your mail
To: uunet!pyramid.com!riscy@uunet.UU.NET
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1993 14:13:15 -0500 (CDT)
In-Reply-To: <9306251522.AA10360@rei.com> from "UUCP Login" at Jun 25, 93 10:22:41 am
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Someone said:
> 
> >I agree that an ISA bus would be neat and allow us to put lots of 
> >clone cards in the system, but I could live even without this.
> 
> I used to think that we could do without any sort of I/O expansion bus,
> but it does mean that you have to put _everything_ on the motherboard,
> including disgusting things like floppy controllers. If we can do an
> ISA interface (anyone have any ideas on how to do this yet?) without
> affecting the overall price too much, I'd say go for it. If not, rip
> it off and use Steve's simpler design. This will mean that we have to
> make our own cards, but they won't be difficult, and it will keep the
> cost of the whole machine down.
> 
Generally I agree.  How about, as a completely separate project, a
SCSI <=> ISA bus translator?  If SCSI is fast enough for a tape
drive it's plenty fast enough for anything I'd want to buy an
ISA-bus board for.  Would this be feasible?  Anything with a SCSI
bus (e.g., Mac, SUN-3) could use it.


 
From rei2!tsprad@uunet.UU.NET Fri Jun 25 22:27:26 1993
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From: rei2!tsprad@uunet.UU.NET (6692)
Message-Id: <9306251950.AA11316@rei.com>
Subject: Re: your mail
To: uunet!pyramid.com!riscy@uunet.UU.NET
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1993 14:50:47 -0500 (CDT)
In-Reply-To: <9306250821.AA08327@rei.com> from "UUCP Login" at Jun 25, 93 03:21:32 am
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> 
> What ISA-bus-cards do we need ?
> 
> > If SCSI, ethernet and video are on the motherboard, ...
> 
> Right.
> 
> > I agree that an ISA bus would be neat and allow us to put lots of 
> > clone cards in the system, but I could live even without this.
> 
> Right too.

Me too.  If the going gets tough, SCSI is expansion bus enough for
me!  Card edge connectors are big, expensive, and a major source of
headaches.
> 
> > However, I feel that we should run every line going to the cpu also
> > to some sort of connector.  ...
> 
> That might lead us into heavy-duty timing problems. ...
> 
> Too much overhead. And big connectors aren't cheap !
> We would have to guarantee timings, signal delays, driver fan outs
> and so on, or third-party add-on cards may run on one one board
> but not on others.
> What do we want to have ? A low-cost/high-speed workstation or a
> multi-cpu/multi-architecture dinosaur ?
> 
Me too, again.  Connectors are nothing but problems, and we've
already got a Medusa's head:

    15-pin D-shell for Video
    DIN for Keyboard
    BNC for Ethernet
    50-pin header for SCSI
    9-pin D-shell or mini-DIN for mouse
    9-pin D-shell for modem
    Might be nice to have a third serial port for a terminal while
	    debugging graphics programs...

The point of the project is that it's distributed in source form!
If you want to expand it to add on your whizz-bang high-tech
whatever, go back to the sources, make your changes, help yourself.
Of course, you'll have to find somebody to make your new boards, but
that's the difference between software and hardware.


 
