Most ISA slots from a 4U chassis? \ VOGONS

Most ISA slots from a 4U chassis?

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First post, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2017-08-08, 23:06

Kahenraz Offline

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Is anyone familiar with what case/motherboard I should look at if I want to install ISA cards in a 4U chassis? What kind of historical compatibility might I expect from this (such as consumer AT/ATX board sizes and power connectors).

Most of the boards with ISA slots are AT-era and I'm not sure if I can even fit those into a standard 4U EATX case. The idea is that I would like to buy a small rack at some point and plug a bunch of old ISA cards into it and log in remotely.

I'm currently looking at the IEC-822 case which uses a PBPI-14SA backplane. Documentation suggests that it works with an SBC but I don't know how it would be installed.

Last edited by Kahenraz on 2017-08-08, 23:30. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 6, by BloodyCactus

Posted on 2017-08-08, 23:29

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get a backplane. you can get 3/4/5/6/7/8/10/12/14/18/20/24 isa slot backplanes.

here is a 14 for 30$
http://www.ebay.com/itm/302341244890?hash=item4664f147da

here is a 20 for 50$ usd
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400977117222?hash=item5d5c194026

here is a 20slot + chassis
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251230926334?hash=item3a7e87b5fe

you might not get a 20slot into a rack width. thats what 19" wide? maybe look for a 10 or 14? I dunno how wide a 20 slot isa backplane is

--/\-[ Stu : Bloody Cactus :: [ https://bloodycactus.com :: http://kråketær.com ]-/\--

Reply 2 of 6, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2017-08-08, 23:31

Kahenraz Offline

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If I plug an ISA SBC into one of those backplanes do all of the other slots appear on the bus?

Reply 3 of 6, by BloodyCactus

Posted on 2017-08-08, 23:59

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yes. doesnt mean you can run 20 cards tho because you only have so many IRQ's to go around!

--/\-[ Stu : Bloody Cactus :: [ https://bloodycactus.com :: http://kråketær.com ]-/\--

Reply 4 of 6, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman

Posted on 2017-08-09, 01:40

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman Offline

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Does ISA backplane work with DOS?

Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.

Reply 5 of 6, by cyclone3d

Posted on 2017-08-09, 02:16

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Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:
Does ISA backplane work with DOS?

Yes.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 6 of 6, by j^aws

Posted on 2017-08-09, 03:03

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Kahenraz wrote:
Is anyone familiar with what case/motherboard I should look at if I want to install ISA cards in a 4U chassis? What kind of historical compatibility might I expect from this (such as consumer AT/ATX board sizes and power connectors).

For these older backplanes, look at the PICMG 1.0 standard for many ISA slots with PCI. Cases, backplanes and SBCs are standardised. You can also use regular ATX and AT PSUs. Besides, SBCs use regular chipsets and CPUs, so you can use all manner of OSes, too.

Backplanes are awesome!

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