kmmak@chopin.eng.uci.edu (K.-M. Mak) (05/21/91)
Do anyone out there know the meaning of ISA and EISA? What are their differences? Which one is better? Thanks in advance.
gordon@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (John Gordon) (05/21/91)
kmmak@chopin.eng.uci.edu (K.-M. Mak) writes: > Do anyone out there know the meaning of ISA and EISA? What are >their differences? Which one is better? > Thanks in advance. ISA: Industry Standard Architecture. EISA: Extended (Enhanced?) Industry Standard Architecture. Both of these terms refer to the expansion slots on your motherboard. ISA allows 8- and 16-bit cards, EISA allows 32-bit cards. EISA is faster, more efficient, and generally better. However, it costs more, and there are not that many cards available for EISA. Unless you have some special purpose in mind, i'd stick with ISA for now. John
stidolph@leland.Stanford.EDU (Wayne Stidolph) (05/21/91)
In article <1991May21.021748.12082@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> gordon@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (John Gordon) writes: ...[stuff deleted]... > > ISA: Industry Standard Architecture. > EISA: Extended (Enhanced?) Industry Standard Architecture. > > Both of these terms refer to the expansion slots on your motherboard. >ISA allows 8- and 16-bit cards, EISA allows 32-bit cards. EISA is faster, >more efficient, and generally better. However, it costs more, and there are >not that many cards available for EISA. Unless you have some special >purpose in mind, i'd stick with ISA for now. > >John Don't forget, your ISA cards will work in an EISA machine (theoretically). So, upgrade motherboard now, cards later, as they come on the market! -- Wayne stidolph@leland.stanford.edu
reynaldo@athena.mit.edu (Rey Villarreal) (05/21/91)
I read somewhere, I believe PC Magazine, that after extensive testing there was no noticible difference in speed between EISA,ISA, and MCA. If this is true there is no reason to upgrade now. This may change when the 50mhz 486's come out though. My advice to you is spend the money on a good fast video card with 1 meg of memory. I hear the diamond speedster is nice. As an Amiga owner and probable future Gateway owner I can atest to how nice it is to have a nice faster display with a GUI. EVer use a PS/2 70 running windows, Yuck!!!! Slow as molasses. Anyone know if a Gateway with speedster 486/25 is much faster. ------rey
csampso@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Charles Sampson) (05/21/91)
In article <283876F5.7130@orion.oac.uci.edu>, kmmak@chopin.eng.uci.edu (K.-M. Mak) writes: > > Do anyone out there know the meaning of ISA and EISA? What are > their differences? Which one is better? > Thanks in advance. BYTE magazine Nov 89 has a great article explaining the difference between ISA and EISA. The article name is "Inside EISA" it's on page 417. There is also another article on EISA in May 91 issue of BYTE titled "486 EISA: BORN TO BLAZE". I haven't had a chance to read this one yet so I don't know how much info it gives. Charlie