Avoid NICE MINI EISA/VL/ISA motherboards!!!
Nick Kline
Richard Mulawa <mul...@spitfire.csd.sgi.com> wrote:
>I am posting this mesage to prevent anyone from going through the hell I've
>had to endure trying to get the NICE MINI EISA motherboard to work.
>
>I've spent the last six months fighting configuration/compatibility issues
>with my NICE MINI EISA board. Without going into all the torrid details.
I have heard all of this. I have the super eisa and I have found that
it works very well. It has 16 simm slots which is one of the main reasons
I bought it.
You can get cheap ram to fill all those slots.
-nick
Darryl Okahata
The NICE Mini EISA uses the HiNT chipset, which is known to have
problems with certain configurations (thanks to the people who pointed
this out to me); the Super EISA uses a different chipset (I, too, have
heard good things about the Super EISA).
From the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
===============================================================================
Q) 2.33 What disadvantages are there to the HiNT EISA chip set?
[From: ra...@wpi.wpi.edu (Ralph Valentino)]
The HiNT Caesar Chip Set (CS8001 & CS8002) can come in three different
configurations. All three of these configurations have EISA style
connectors and are (sometimes incorrectly) sold as EISA motherboards.
The differences should be carefully noted, though.
The rarest of these configuration uses a combination of the first HiNT
chip (CS8001) and the Intel chip set. This configuration can support
the full EISA functionality: 32 address bits, 32 data bits, level
sensitive (sharable) interrupts, full EISA DMA, watch dog (sanity)
timer, and so forth.
The second configuration is called Super-ISA, which uses both of the
HiNT chips. This configuration is very common in low-end models. It
supports a very limited functionality: 24 address bits, 32 data bits,
edge triggered (non-sharable) interrupts, ISA (16 data, 24 address)
DMA, and no watch dog timer. Some EISA boards, such as the Adaptec
1742A EISA Fast SCSI-2 host adapter, can be configured to work in this
mode by hacking their EISA configuration file (.CFG) to turn off these
features. Other EISA cards require these features and are therefore
unusable in these systems.
The final configuration is called Pragmatic EISA, or P-EISA. Like
Super-ISA, both HiNT chips are used but external support logic
(buffers and such) are added to provide a somewhat increased
functionality: 32 address bits, 32 data bits, edge triggered
(non-sharable) interrupts, ISA (16 data, 24 address) DMA, and no watch
dog timer. The full 32 bits for address and data allow bus mastering
devices access to the complete range of main memory. As with
Super-ISA, there may be incompatibilities with some EISA cards.
===============================================================================
-- Darryl Okahata
Internet: dar...@sr.hp.com
DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion or policy of Hewlett-Packard or of the
little green men that have been following him all day.