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From: akm@geriatrix.cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: ISA/EISA
Message-ID: <1991Mar31.075931.8606@cs.uoregon.edu>
Date: 31 Mar 91 07:59:31 GMT
References: <1991Mar28.114156.104@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu> <1991Mar30.222106.28919@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1991Mar31.182147.361@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
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Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Oregon
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In article <1991Mar31.182147.361@csc.canterbury.ac.nz> cctr132@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Nick FitzGerald, CSC, Uni. of Canterbury, NZ) writes:
>In article <1991Mar30.222106.28919@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>,
>ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) writes:

>I don't know if there is some sort of standard or not, but I recommend
>anyone who buys a 386 that if they have the slightest inkling that they
>may _someday_ want more RAM than fits on the motherboard, they should
>obtain a 32-bit memory expansion board with their PC.  

>I know two people who bought cheap-ish 386 clones a couple of years ago,
>The
>suppliers claim that the cards for the old boards are no longer available
>as the manufacturers no longer make the m/b's so also stopped making the
>expansion cards.

That happened to me. Actually, I have two recommendations on this
based on my experience with my motherboard.
First, make sure that the SIMM slots are not in a position where
add-on cards would run "across/over" them. This is where the memory
sits in an AT, which is fine on an AT because DIP chips are low, but
SIMMS are high, and on my M/B, the simms bump into expansion cards.
Newer MB/s have the simms on the side, near the power connecter, which
is much better. That way there is nothing that is supposed to go
"above" them, so the height of the SIMMs is not a problem

Second, instead of bothering about memory expansion, I'd suggest a
motherboard that has 16 SIMM sockets, and can take 256/1MB/4MB SIMMS.
THat way, sometime in the future you can have 64M without hassling
about 32bit cards that you may or may not have... I wish I'd done
that... Someone want to tell me if I can add a 16 bit ram card to my
386? Like the BOCA AT Plus? What happens?

>> (I remember giving a Zenith sales rep a really hard time 
>> because she insisted the 32-bit slots in their machines 
>> was ISA).
>That's mean, cruel and nasty!   8-)
>She was only doing her job!!    8-), 8-)

I hate to say this, but she might have been entirely correct. The 32
bit slot in my machine is ISA. i.e., you can stick a 16-bit ISA board
into it, and that board will run just fine. I currently have my video
card sitting there. The second, "AT" part of the connector is longer
to accomodate the extra lines.

If anyone has heard about such a 32 bit expansion card, I'm all ears.

kartik

-- 
Anant Kartik Mithal                                     akm@cs.uoregon.edu
Research Assistant, 					(503)346-4408 (msgs)
Department of Computer Science,                         (503)346-3989 (direct)
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202