3 ms·

AFAIK You can't hook up old ISA or PCI cards to a raspberry pi, and if you can, the x86 drivers and software won't work.

aksss 6y ago
For the record... sure you can!! :D An ISA/IDE cable is just copper ribbon cable using .1" spacing, which is what the GPIO header pin spacing is on a Pi. There is a pin blocked on the standard ide female connector but that pin is just one of many ground connectors on the Pi. Clip it off or dremel/drill out the hole as needed. Jeez, now I just convinced myself that I MIGHT use the cable some day. Thanks a lot! >:/ Was trying to throw it away. There's a PCI bridge for the raspberry pi 4, if for whatever reason one would want to do such a thing. Drivers might be a problem if the card's linux support sucks but that's kind of a separate issue. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4-pci-express-bridge-is-a-step-closer https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4-pci-express... EDIT: Oh, maybe your point was that the reason to keep the 486 around is to use old ISA/PCI cards - sorry, I mentioned ISA cables in OC so thought you were replying to that. Yeah, point taken, but I'm skeptical that there are any but the most narrow cases where the function of an old ISA/PCI card can't be replicated/emulated with better performance on a Pi. I mean, trying to think of the edge cases - an old SCSI RAID controller? Maybe some proprietary industrial controller stuff? but yeah. My comment about junking the old stuff was just a criticism of the inclination I think all of us nerds have to get that old box back into production use at home. I think there are very few - if any - cases where that makes sense anymore.
- kjs3 6y ago
  What is this "ISA cable" thing you keep talking about? You mean an IDE cable? ISA is a bus, not a cable. I have all sorts of ISA cards that have no alternative (other than for huge expense) or software. Quite a few IEEE-488, many other weird interfaces, DSP dev boards, one of a kind/prototype boards, other stuff. I have boxes of the stuff, and know hundreds of people who have the same needs. We have mailing lists. No, a PI can't do that. No it can't emulate that. No it's not as generally useful as you think unless all you care about is stuff written in the last 5 years.
  - aksss 6y ago
    Yeah I said IDE in the comment you're replying to. IDE or ATA is a subset of the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), but yeah you're right - I should have said IDE cable in OC. Forgive me, it's been a while. I don't doubt there are specialized boards out there that have no modern functional equivalent (esp. industrial apps), but you CAN connect to stuff using GPIB (IEEE 488) with a Pi, so that's not one of them. If legacy OS/app support is your issue I'm not sure it's going to give you much value booting your 486 with a linux distro today (what the post was about, and the context in which my comment was made about the Pi). If you're locked into the 486-generation hardware interfaces and the Windows/DOS software platform, and CAN'T leverage hardware interface bridges and software emulators on modern systems with horsepower to spare, you're talking about the edge cases of the edge cases. My point was never directed at the edge cases of the edge cases. I said "I see little advantage in keeping the old hardware around". The rare edge cases are represented by that "little advantage" I CAN see. But it's little, man. Most situations where a 486 would offer any utility today, particularly on Linux but not only that, a $50 3-watt Pi can do the job better, cheaper and cleaner. Those things are the embodiment of "generally useful" - A low power, small form-factor, relatively high-power compute platform with an easy to use GPIO header and libraries for many languages, able to leverage most Debian packages (including DOS emulators). I admit it doesn't meet 100% of planetary need, but it's right up there with anti-lock brakes, microwavable meals, and stretchy pants in my book. Convince me otherwise.

aksss 6y ago

For the record... sure you can!! :D An ISA/IDE cable is just copper ribbon cable using .1" spacing, which is what the GPIO header pin spacing is on a Pi. There is a pin blocked on the standard ide female connector but that pin is just one of many ground connectors on the Pi. Clip it off or dremel/drill out the hole as needed. Jeez, now I just convinced myself that I MIGHT use the cable some day. Thanks a lot! >:/ Was trying to throw it away. There's a PCI bridge for the raspberry pi 4, if for whatever reason one would want to do such a thing. Drivers might be a problem if the card's linux support sucks but that's kind of a separate issue. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4-pci-express-bridge-is-a-step-closer https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4-pci-express... EDIT: Oh, maybe your point was that the reason to keep the 486 around is to use old ISA/PCI cards - sorry, I mentioned ISA cables in OC so thought you were replying to that. Yeah, point taken, but I'm skeptical that there are any but the most narrow cases where the function of an old ISA/PCI card can't be replicated/emulated with better performance on a Pi. I mean, trying to think of the edge cases - an old SCSI RAID controller? Maybe some proprietary industrial controller stuff? but yeah. My comment about junking the old stuff was just a criticism of the inclination I think all of us nerds have to get that old box back into production use at home. I think there are very few - if any - cases where that makes sense anymore.

kjs3 6y ago
What is this "ISA cable" thing you keep talking about? You mean an IDE cable? ISA is a bus, not a cable. I have all sorts of ISA cards that have no alternative (other than for huge expense) or software. Quite a few IEEE-488, many other weird interfaces, DSP dev boards, one of a kind/prototype boards, other stuff. I have boxes of the stuff, and know hundreds of people who have the same needs. We have mailing lists. No, a PI can't do that. No it can't emulate that. No it's not as generally useful as you think unless all you care about is stuff written in the last 5 years.
- aksss 6y ago
  Yeah I said IDE in the comment you're replying to. IDE or ATA is a subset of the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), but yeah you're right - I should have said IDE cable in OC. Forgive me, it's been a while. I don't doubt there are specialized boards out there that have no modern functional equivalent (esp. industrial apps), but you CAN connect to stuff using GPIB (IEEE 488) with a Pi, so that's not one of them. If legacy OS/app support is your issue I'm not sure it's going to give you much value booting your 486 with a linux distro today (what the post was about, and the context in which my comment was made about the Pi). If you're locked into the 486-generation hardware interfaces and the Windows/DOS software platform, and CAN'T leverage hardware interface bridges and software emulators on modern systems with horsepower to spare, you're talking about the edge cases of the edge cases. My point was never directed at the edge cases of the edge cases. I said "I see little advantage in keeping the old hardware around". The rare edge cases are represented by that "little advantage" I CAN see. But it's little, man. Most situations where a 486 would offer any utility today, particularly on Linux but not only that, a $50 3-watt Pi can do the job better, cheaper and cleaner. Those things are the embodiment of "generally useful" - A low power, small form-factor, relatively high-power compute platform with an easy to use GPIO header and libraries for many languages, able to leverage most Debian packages (including DOS emulators). I admit it doesn't meet 100% of planetary need, but it's right up there with anti-lock brakes, microwavable meals, and stretchy pants in my book. Convince me otherwise.