Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 04:02:16 -0400 From: "Andrew C. Hornback" <hornback@wireco.net> To: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Cc: "FreeBSD Hardware" <hardware@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Install problem Message-ID: <010a01c0cd5e$0b6a2720$0e00000a@tomcat> In-Reply-To: <00f901c0cb09$a9778360$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Ted > Mittelstaedt > Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 4:53 AM > To: Andrew C. Hornback; genocide@adelphia.net > Cc: FreeBSD Questions > Subject: RE: Install problem > > > What you are running into is the wonderful foresight of > >IBM's engineers when they came up with MCA, back in the mid 80s. > >MCA doesn't allow hardware to occupy an IRQ, as the rest of the > >world understands it. > > Actually, the MCA bus is a lot like the PCI bus. IBM wanted to > permit interrupt sharing so they did, and actually the MCA > bus had dozens to hundreds of technical advancements over ISA. MCA also has a slot similar to PCI, physically. But, as a bit of trivia for the uninitiated, there are three different MCA slots which makes putting older MCA hardware to work a bit more challenging. > At the time that MCA came out, there were MANY motherboard > manufacturers that were wanting to implement it on their boards. > Unfortunately, IBM got greedy and demanded very steep licensing > fees. As a result, the rest of the industry came up with EISA > which is technically poorer. Otherwise, today we would all be running > MCA. I always figured it was something like that, since IBM had lost it's stake in the PC market due to licensing the technology out, and the fact that Phoenix BIOS was out there for the clones to be built with. I figured it was either the licensing cost, or the fact that the "Big Five" wanted to show IBM who was boss, as a power play. (feels like he needs to dust off his old issues of Byte, for nostalgia's sake) > > As much as I hate to say it, there is a version of Linux > >that will run on MCA, if you can find it. And I believe Solaris > >might run on it, but that would be an old version as Sol8 doesn't > >even support ISA anymore. > > > > IBM builds good, strong, solid hardware... your machine > >still being around and in good running shape is a testament to > >that. Just good luck in finding software that'll work with their > >quirky "next generation" architecture... > > OS/2 anyone? Got a shrinkwrapped copy of it sitting on my desk. *grins* --- Andy Obligatory FreeBSD content - I didn't realize that there was a version of FreeBSD with support for the MCA bus. What's the URL for the info on that puppy? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the messagehome | help
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