Half ISA- vs ISA?!?

[neointima]

Hey All,
I have a naive question, which I can't seem to find an answer to:

We have a digital camera linked to a microscope which uses an ISA interface card. A PCI interface card will cost us $2000. The computer that used to drive the camera is a K6300, and we'd like to dump it and get a new computer. However, Dell will only let us put in 'half' ISA slots.

Anybody know what the difference is, and whether or not there's some kind of adapter to allow the use of a 'full' ISA card in a 'half' ISA slot?

Thanks a ton!

Neo

 

[lsman]

welcome.
before a wild guess...
what do you mean by "Dell will only let us put in 'half' ISA slots. " ? Are you planing to buy a new Dell computer and the CSR give you this answer? Most new computer will be out with ISA slot. If you are buying a new computer, better watch out what how "new" you are going to get if your "new" computer has ISA slot.


and my wild guess is. "half" the height of a regular ISA board. Some book size computer can not use regular PCI card and only allow a shorter (in height) PCI card.


may be helpful to tell us what the digital camera and the microscope is?

 

[neointima]

Thanks for responding.

The camera is a 'SPOT' Camera (http://www.diaginc.com/spot.htm) and the microscope are a 1) Zeiss Stemmi 2000-c and 2) a Zeiss Axioskop 2.

Basically, the computer would be for TWAIN acquiring the images from the microscope-camera setup.

We thought that Dell could simply put together a new computer with a motherboard with ISA slots - such as the in the gigabyte 6avtx PIII (except of course, Dell would use a proprietary motherboard). It was a long shot, but I didn't think that ISA was THAT obsolete.

The CSR has now said that he can only put in "half-sized" slot. I have no idea what that means, because I've never even heard of a "half-sized" ISA slot. Given that our card is a full-sized card, I don't even see how that is a relevant option, nor even why there would be a half-sized standard, since that in no way helps with legacy ISA cards.

Anyway, can anyone help me, or recommend a company that custom builds systems? We will end up paying using a PO #, so it can't be someone who does it out of their garage......

I could do it myself, but sheesh, I'm really supposed to be doing research, and only do the computer support stuff 1/4 time as a favor....

Neo

 

[lsman]

account to PC99, the last date mobo to develop ISA is Jan 1 2000. So its old. and last Dimension manufactured by Dell is XPS Txxx series on their support website... wonder how they can give you a half isa...

Wait are you talking about rack? server?
There are some full size ISA and half ISA SBC that you can use for server (the the half ISA means half of the length of the card of a full size ISA)


Edit:
goog in another thread provide:
USB to ISA card for $119US

now you can buy whatever you want...