PCi slot, whats the name of the other, the older ones

[HondaF1]

Hi.


On motherboards, there are PCI slots, and then there are other slots. Whats the name of teh one that is longer, and usually located above the PCI slots? I dont think its still used on tadays computers, is it? What is the main difference between the two?

Thankyou

 

[batmanuel]

Do you mean the old ISA slots? The main difference is that the ISA slots ran on a 16 bit bus at a 8.33MHz bus speed, while PCI slots run at 33MHz and have a 32-bit data bus. With a faster and wider data bus, the PCI slots can carry data along the bus much faster than the older ISA slots (which were first introduced in the 286 era). You can do bus mastering with PCI slots, and the IRQs are easier to deal with in PCI as well (a lot of ISA devices required jumpers to set the IRQ whereas most IRQ conflicts with PCI devices can be resolved in the Windows device manager).

Or are you talking about the AGP slot, which is typically located above the PCI slots on most modern motherboards? If so, the AGP slot is a special high speed interface used to allow today's very powerful graphics accelerators to communicate quickly with the system's CPU and memory. It is 32-bit and runs in multiples of 66MHz, so it is anywhere from two to sixteen times faster at transferring data than the PCI bus.

 

[Maverick]

I remember ISA slots...I used to think PCI was the upside down slot for so long because of ISA. I still feel inserting my cards upside down.

 

[MWink]

Anyone remember MCA? Those slots looked a lot like PCI slots. Also VLB slots were super long.

 

[Tostada]

Micro Channel: the 32-bit PnP bus from 1987 ... that makes me think, how many good ideas has IBM had that they managed to screw up?

 

[jackschmittusa]

Yeah, I always thought MCA and IBM would ahve been THE lesson for Intel and Rambus. People don't like it when you try to exert too much influence and control standards.

 

[HondaF1]

Ah yes, ISA slot, that is it. Thankyou. I just could not come across the name.


It appears from the posts that they are no longer popular.


Anyways, also on many oldermotherboards,not sure if this is also on todays motherboards, I dont think so, there is the PCI slots, the RAM slots, and there is this one other slot, thats about a 1/3rd of the size of a ddr ram slot, but you actually plug in something to the socket, the computer workls fine with or without it. Onj some older ones, this kind of slot has been located near the ddr ram slots, on some, its a bit further away. The thing you plug in to the slot is about 1/3rd to 1/4th the size of a ddr RAM stick. Any ideas as to what this may be?

 

[Ryoga]

Most likely CPU L2 cache RAM.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: HondaF1
Ah yes, ISA slot, that is it. Thankyou. I just could not come across the name.


It appears from the posts that they are no longer popular.


Anyways, also on many oldermotherboards,not sure if this is also on todays motherboards, I dont think so, there is the PCI slots, the RAM slots, and there is this one other slot, thats about a 1/3rd of the size of a ddr ram slot, but you actually plug in something to the socket, the computer workls fine with or without it. Onj some older ones, this kind of slot has been located near the ddr ram slots, on some, its a bit further away. The thing you plug in to the slot is about 1/3rd to 1/4th the size of a ddr RAM stick. Any ideas as to what this may be?

That's the understatement of the millenium. Do not buy/use any ISA cards. Most of them aren't compatible w/modern OSes like WinXP anyway. They will slow everything down. Use PCI for network/soundcards and AGP for videocards.

 

[Ryoga]

The primary disadvantage of ISA is lack of PNP. It makes it very difficult to obtain correct drivers and to configure the card correctly.

/me is still amused at the prospect of PCI Express analog modems.

 

[Lonyo]

I thikn I saw a 775 motherboard with ISA slots at a show (they seemed like ISA, but they could have been PCI-Express, I'm sure there was a comment saying they were ISA or something).
It was quite weird, and if they had been PCI-Express I wouldn't have remembered it at all, so I'm fairly sure it was ISA.

 

[boomerang]

I got involved in computing when ISA slots were still around. My wife's still using my first build using an Abit BX6 Rev2 with 2 ISA slots. Boots a little slow on XP Pro, but it does everything she needs it to.

What a pain to get a card working in an ISA slot. Jumpers for IRQ, COM and DMA. I don't know which was worse to get working, Modems or Sound Cards. Funky procedures to get drivers working. I don't miss them.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: Ryoga
The primary disadvantage of ISA is lack of PNP. It makes it very difficult to obtain correct drivers and to configure the card correctly.

/me is still amused at the prospect of PCI Express analog modems.

This can't be all cards. My OS recognizes my ISA cards.