4 ms·

Is there an ELI5 explanation for what is being shown here? It seems pretty fascinating even if I don’t quite understand it.

michaelkaufman 6y ago
It's the website for the s-100 bus that the processors it talks about works with,(i.e, 80486 intel processors). It's a lot of nostalgic 1989 bus verbiage for uber geeks and engineers who make that stuff.
- bilegeek 6y ago
  It's kinda amazing how many processors have been put on the bus. The guy who runs the site has built[1] a huge number of both CPU and peripheral boards. The S100 bus sure has an outsized shadow. [1]http://www.s100computers.com/My%20System%20Index%20Page.htm http://www.s100computers.com/My%20System%20Index%20Page.htm
bear8642 6y ago
Appears the 80486 can be connected to the S100 bus directly given ability to read from adjustable size databus. This means effectively an x86 style cpu can be part of a simple computer design
aidenn0 6y ago
The S100 bus was the first standard microcomputer bus[1]. It was based off of a passive mainboard system, so the CPU was just another card that plugged into it. The overwhelming majority of microcomputers that shipped with CP/M (as well as many that shipped with other operating systems) were based off of the S100 bus. While there was never a commercial S100 board with a 486 on it, this article shows how it is fairly easy to design and build one. S100 predates the PC bus, which largely replaced it. The AT (a.k.a ISA bus) was a 16-bit version of the 8-bit PC bus. IBM tried to get everyone to switch to the MCA bus, but the high royalties they charged meant that pretty much everone stuck with the AT bus until PCI came out. In its server form of PCI-X, PCI maxed out at 64-bits and 133MHz (though 32-bits and 66MHz was what you would see in a PC), and was replaced by PCIe, which is still used today. Graphics cards were treated specially at several points along the way, with the VL-bus, and AGP basically being ISA and PCI respectively with dedicated higher-throughput buses to avoid having to use the more expensive MCA and PCI-X when the graphics card was the sole device in the system that needed higher bandwidth.
- teh_klev 6y ago
  > pretty much everone stuck with the AT bus until PCI came out There was also EISA which was quite popular as an alternative to MCA until PCI bedded itself in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Industry_Standard_Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Industry_Standard_Arc... I particularly enjoyed this (possibly apocryphal bit): "when it became clear to IBM that Micro Channel was dying, IBM licensed EISA for use in a few server systems."
  - aidenn0 6y ago
    I forgot about that. Interesting how 2 generations in a row basically followed the same pattern of commodity, server, high-speed commodity: ISA, EISA, VLB PCI, PCI-X, AGP
    - teh_klev 6y ago
      Crikey, I'd forgotten about AGP, though that was specifically for graphics cards (as was VLB) rather than being general purpose.
      - logbiscuitswave 6y ago
        I remember having both AGP and VLB graphics cards at one time or another. Definitely got the short end of that stick when PCI came along and became the de facto standard. I do seem to recall for a short period of time there were some motherboards with both PCI and AGP slots for those who really needed that level of interoperability.
        phibz 6y ago
        AGP superceded PCI for graphics. It was based on PCI and was a dedicated link that received multiple increases in speed over its lifetime. AGP, 2x, 4x, 8x. Etc. Boards with PCI and AGP were very common. You could even find ones with ISA, PCI, and AGP.
  - cardiffspaceman 6y ago

michaelkaufman 6y ago

It's the website for the s-100 bus that the processors it talks about works with,(i.e, 80486 intel processors). It's a lot of nostalgic 1989 bus verbiage for uber geeks and engineers who make that stuff.

bilegeek 6y ago
It's kinda amazing how many processors have been put on the bus. The guy who runs the site has built[1] a huge number of both CPU and peripheral boards. The S100 bus sure has an outsized shadow. [1]http://www.s100computers.com/My%20System%20Index%20Page.htm http://www.s100computers.com/My%20System%20Index%20Page.htm

bear8642 6y ago

Appears the 80486 can be connected to the S100 bus directly given ability to read from adjustable size databus. This means effectively an x86 style cpu can be part of a simple computer design

aidenn0 6y ago

The S100 bus was the first standard microcomputer bus[1]. It was based off of a passive mainboard system, so the CPU was just another card that plugged into it. The overwhelming majority of microcomputers that shipped with CP/M (as well as many that shipped with other operating systems) were based off of the S100 bus. While there was never a commercial S100 board with a 486 on it, this article shows how it is fairly easy to design and build one. S100 predates the PC bus, which largely replaced it. The AT (a.k.a ISA bus) was a 16-bit version of the 8-bit PC bus. IBM tried to get everyone to switch to the MCA bus, but the high royalties they charged meant that pretty much everone stuck with the AT bus until PCI came out. In its server form of PCI-X, PCI maxed out at 64-bits and 133MHz (though 32-bits and 66MHz was what you would see in a PC), and was replaced by PCIe, which is still used today. Graphics cards were treated specially at several points along the way, with the VL-bus, and AGP basically being ISA and PCI respectively with dedicated higher-throughput buses to avoid having to use the more expensive MCA and PCI-X when the graphics card was the sole device in the system that needed higher bandwidth.

teh_klev 6y ago
> pretty much everone stuck with the AT bus until PCI came out There was also EISA which was quite popular as an alternative to MCA until PCI bedded itself in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Industry_Standard_Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Industry_Standard_Arc... I particularly enjoyed this (possibly apocryphal bit): "when it became clear to IBM that Micro Channel was dying, IBM licensed EISA for use in a few server systems."
- aidenn0 6y ago
  I forgot about that. Interesting how 2 generations in a row basically followed the same pattern of commodity, server, high-speed commodity: ISA, EISA, VLB PCI, PCI-X, AGP
  - teh_klev 6y ago
    Crikey, I'd forgotten about AGP, though that was specifically for graphics cards (as was VLB) rather than being general purpose.
    - logbiscuitswave 6y ago
      I remember having both AGP and VLB graphics cards at one time or another. Definitely got the short end of that stick when PCI came along and became the de facto standard. I do seem to recall for a short period of time there were some motherboards with both PCI and AGP slots for those who really needed that level of interoperability.
      - phibz 6y ago
        AGP superceded PCI for graphics. It was based on PCI and was a dedicated link that received multiple increases in speed over its lifetime. AGP, 2x, 4x, 8x. Etc. Boards with PCI and AGP were very common. You could even find ones with ISA, PCI, and AGP.
- cardiffspaceman 6y ago