Re: [patch] Proper MCA detection for AHA-1640

From: Tom Sightler (ttsig@pmki.com)
Date: Wed Jan 19 2000 - 20:38:08 EST


David,

> I'll do a thorough review of your code, but unless someone yells:
> 'No! ISA & MCA _does_ coexist in Machine xxyy from company zz', I will
> make some changes to the code that skips ISA autoprobe if an MCA-adapter
> is found...
>

Well, just for the record, the Wells American Compustar 95100 used a modular
bus that could have 8 ISA/EISA slots and 5 MCA in the same machine (or 16
ISA/EISA). I worked for this company back in 1989 and we were even featured
on the cover of Computer Shopper that year (I think the Sept issue) with a
picture of the machine with both an ISA and MCA bus in it. Of course, as
the rest of history goes, IBM sued (I don't think Wells properly licensed
the MCA technology) and the company went out of business sometime in 1990-91
(I was long gone). I have no idea if any such machines are still out there,
so I doubt it's worth using this exception to worry about coexistance, but I
still thought you might find it interesting. At the time the CompuStar was
advertised as being the only computer that allowed you to leverage lowcost
ISA cards as well as higher performance MCA in the same machine, from this I
would guess there are no others, but who knows. A quick search on the web
did find one reference to this machine in someones collection, but I doubt
it's in use, and even less likely that Linux/MCA would run on it anyway.

Later,
Tom

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