VOGONS


ISA slot motherboards from AliExpress

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First post, by markot

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I was looking for ISA slot motherboards and found out, that new motherboards are available at AliExpress.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/IMV694X-ISA-mo … rchweb201560_10

Reply 1 of 87, by boxpressed

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Very cool. Apparently, there's a whole line of new motherboards with ISA from this manufacturer:

http://yesiit.com/en/Products.asp?ClassID=2

Reply 2 of 87, by hyoenmadan

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I can see that the basic board models in that page come with the Winbond ISA brigde. That chip doesn't have the DDMA support necessary to many ISA soundcards. If you want the ISA slot to use an old soundcard, ensure that the board has an ITE ISA Bridge chip.

Last edited by hyoenmadan on 2015-12-08, 14:25. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 3 of 87, by Nintendawg

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Well thats a shame if ISA slot isn't fully compatible with sound cards. How do you identify which ISA bridge chip is used?

They even have one (IMV8601T-ISA) described as "Game machine motherboard".

Would be tempting if I hadn't spent so much on mobo's recently.

Reply 4 of 87, by PCBONEZ

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The manufacturing company seems to be filling the niche for industrial boards with ISA slots.

Nintendawg wrote:

They even have one (IMV8601T-ISA) described as "Game machine motherboard".

That may well mean it's intended for game machines like those you pump quarters into at the bowling alley.
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Most seem to be socket 370. There is not anything unusual or amazing about an ISA slot on a socket 370 board.
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I did see among their products a socket 478 and even a socket 775 board with ISA slots.
While unusual and interesting outside of industrial applications I can't think of a good reason to have ISA on either of those sockets.
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One thing I do find amazing is that they managed to source enough old-stock chipsets to do production runs of motherboards.
If that's not how they did it then the chipsets are counterfeits as they have been out of production for years.
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Reply 5 of 87, by MrEWhite

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So this 370 board: http://yesiit.com/en/ProductShow.asp?classid=16&ID=56
Wouldn't work with a sound card? And I don't see why a legit (looking) company would need to use counterfeit chipsets.

Reply 7 of 87, by hyoenmadan

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Nintendawg wrote:

Well thats a shame if ISA slot isn't fully compatible with sound cards. How do you identify which ISA bridge chip is used?

They even have one (IMV8601T-ISA) described as "Game machine motherboard".

IMV8601T-ISA uses the built-in ISA support provided by the VIA Southbridge. As the other user said, there's nothing special about this VIA chipset, and certainly you can find cheaper second hand 370 Tualatin boards with ISA slot based in this chipset, like some Biostar models.

The real interesting ones are the intel 8xx ones including ISA support. Intel threw very early their support for the ISA slot... Even their last 370 Coppermine/Tualatin offers don't include it.

This is the chart of the bridges used in these listed boards.

IMI845GV-ISA - Winbond ISA Bridge
IMI945GV-2ISA - Winbond ISA Bridge
IMI845GV-3ISA - Winbond ISA Bridge
IMIG31-ISA - Winbond ISA Bridge
IMIG41-2ISA - ITE ISA Bridge

Clearly they went and put ITE chip only in their highest offer. All the lower offers are based in the Winbond bridge.

Theorically the ones based in the i845/865 chip would work with ISA soundcards even paired with the Winbond crippled bridge, as the chipset in these boards still provides DDMA support, but don't know if that native support is even wired to the ISA slots bypassing the bridge (it probably isn't, as these boards are targeted mainly for old communication/interface boards, which don't have need for things like DMA).

Ofc the i945 and later chipsets paired with the Winbond ISA chip are a no-no for ISA soundcards, only communication stuff.

Reply 8 of 87, by Tetrium

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alexanrs wrote:

I believe the southbridge on that board provides an ISA bus directly (without a bridge chip)

This is what I thought. That VIA chipset sound support ISA natively.

The website does seem to be a little vague about what exact chipset it uses (either the X or the T variant with only the latter supporting Tualatin).
But even if it has native ISA and the T variant, it doesn't guarantee it will actually use native ISA and it doesn't guarantee it will work with Tualatin.

But still it's interesting that new boards with these specs are actually still being produced and the price isn't way over the top I think.

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Reply 10 of 87, by Tetrium

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MrEWhite wrote:

I am thinking of purchasing one of these. So the x chipset (which it what it says in the description) Won't work with Tualatin?

Officially no, but theoretically you could use a pinmodded chip I guess to circumvent that. But then again, who knows how these new boards will behave compared to the older boards we all know so much about.

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Reply 12 of 87, by hyoenmadan

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MrEWhite wrote:

I am thinking of purchasing one of these. So the x chipset (which it what it says in the description) Won't work with Tualatin?

If you will buy one of the VIA boards, i recommend the IMV694X-ISA, mostly because it also has an AGP port, which you can use in the times where you want to play something a bit modern with it. It will support Native ISA though the VIA 686B chipset (Means that the DMA function used by older Soundcards will be there 😀), Tualatin 133 CPUs and modern 133MHZ SDRAM sticks (Too bad that it doesn't support DDR memory, last VIA Socket 370 boards based in the CN333 chipset could).

mATX board will also support all the listed, except it doesn't have AGP port, so you will be limited to the Onboard video and PCI video cards.

alexanrs wrote:

I REALLY doubt they designed new boards, but rather just bought an existing design from the likes of ECS, PCChips or whatever and manufactured them.

Actually the VIA mATX board looks like a former Biostar design, while the VIA ATX one with AGP port looks like a Soltek model.

Reply 15 of 87, by hyoenmadan

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Brickpad wrote:

What good are these boards when most if not all modern PSU do not have the -5v line?

Industrial designs generally include an On-boards -5v voltage regulator for the ISA block, so you can use a modern PSU without any trouble.
That's one of the good points of an updated design against second hand boards.

Reply 16 of 87, by alexanrs

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Brickpad wrote:

What good are these boards when most if not all modern PSU do not have the -5v line?

None of them really need the -5V line. And I doubt you'd wanna use something like an 8-bit Sound Blaster or a LAPC-I one one fo these....
And even if you do, it is easy enough to mod the ATX connector and add a linear regulator and derive it from the -12V rail.

Reply 17 of 87, by mockingbird

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hyoenmadan wrote:
Nintendawg wrote:

The real interesting ones are the intel 8xx ones including ISA support. Intel threw very early their support for the ISA slot... Even their last 370 Coppermine/Tualatin offers don't include it.

I'm pretty sure everything until the 845 chipset had integrated ISA support (eventhough most boards didn't officially have the physical slots).

I'm also farily certain that even the 865 (and perhaps also the 875) had ISA support, in fact there's a member here who has had partial success even with 45nm on an 865 board...

I think the 915 was the first chipset without ISA.

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Reply 18 of 87, by hyoenmadan

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MrEWhite wrote:

I thoght the X series didn't support Tualatin? The chipset in the board in question is VIA 694x btw.

If the board has the proper VRM support, it will.

mockingbird wrote:

I'm pretty sure everything until the 845 chipset had integrated ISA support (eventhough most boards didn't officially have the physical slots).

I'm also farily certain that even the 865 (and perhaps also the 875) had ISA support, in fact there's a member here who has had partial success even with 45nm on an 865 board...

I think the 915 was the first chipset without ISA.

If these chipsets have actual electrical support for ISA slots, and the proper logic blocks, I've never seen any vendor using these features in their board designs. Even some old IBM and MSI designs that i've seen in second hand ebay have the dreaded WinBond ISA bridge driving the ISA slot.

PD: I checked for that DFI board, it actually also has the Winbond ISA bridge, and a Winbond SupeIO chip 😜.

Last edited by hyoenmadan on 2015-12-08, 16:43. Edited 4 times in total.