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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!yarrina.connect.com.au!belfast.dcd.wa.gov.au!belfast.dcd.wa.gov.au!not-for-mail From: juliane@belfast.dcd.wa.gov.au (Julian Elischer) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: ISA or EISA ? Date: 15 Sep 1993 11:00:51 +0800 Organization: Dept of Community Development, Perth, Australia Lines: 75 Distribution: world Message-ID: <2760h3$6o7@belfast.dcd.wa.gov.au> References: <CD8wJM.7n8@latcs1.lat.oz.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: belfast.dcd.wa.gov.au In article <CD8wJM.7n8@latcs1.lat.oz.au> wongm@latcs1.lat.oz.au (M.C. Wong) writes: >Hi, > > However, having chatted to my vendor (of my existing ISA machine), I >was told that EISA + VLB slots board does not exist, and EISA is going to >face extinction soon! I was shocked by that sort of statement, and would >like to confirm with people who use EISA machine! To my impression, it >seems as if EISA is more likely to be the trend over ISA, who is right, >me or my vendor ? Is there such a config of EISA + VLB slots ? yes there are many. Mylex make one (but they are expensive), my dealer here in Perth has one for $A600 + CPU (it has a ZIF socket for the cpu). EISA is not going to face extinction soon because of VESA's 2 slot (sometimes 1) board limit. > > Secondly, my vendor claimed that for EISA and ISA, the performance of >Ethernet card is unlikely to make an observable difference, since the >peak transfer rate is 10Mbits/sec! And accordingly, he suggested me to stick >with my ISA + VLB slots board instead of investing in an EISA + VLB slots >board! Also, he claimed that HDD transfer rate depends mainly on the controller >instead of the type of bus ! Finally, he said the different components prices >for EISA is going to be more expensive than an ISA one, and does not worth >the extra dollars! you should get a vendor who knows what he is talking about.. working on a bustek742 an ST41651 gives 3.2MB/sec raw. (EISA) working on an aha1542 the same disk gives 1.5MB/sec raw.(ISA) The difference is as much in the bus as in the cards. The amximum data you can hope to push over an ISA bus (with good cards) is around 4MB/sec, and if you want to run anything ELSE on it you lose big-time. For Ethernet, he's right and wrong.. 1.2MB/sec is not much, but it's almost half of your ISA bandwidth.. add a tape and a disk as well, and things start slowing down.. For DOS this doesn't matter becasue you're only ever doing one thing at a time anyhow. Be warned also that he'll probably try flog you a 'caching' disk adapter saying "This will make more difference than an EISA MB will".. Dos types think like that.. For versions of 386bsd in which the cache is working upto spec, caching controllers are a waste. > > In my opinion, many of the people out there who use Unix boxes seem to >go for EISA, for whatever reasons they've got! from experience.... they work faster.. > > For myself, I would like to know for 386bsd/FreeBSD/NetBSD Unix box, >does EISA show much difference over ISA ? And with EISA, will it promise >greater trnafer rate for Ethernet card, and how about SCSI-2 HDD, is that >affected by the type of bus (since it is DMA) ? it sure does, however, if you've got one spare VESA slot, an untrastore 34F or bustek 445 (? I forget the number) will also give good performance. but then how many Vesa slots do you have? > >- wongm@latcs1.lat.oz.au you don't say where in OZ you are.. I presume somewhere over-east.. julian