Questions on EISA network cards

[krebizfan]

I have multiple EISA systems and have been thinking about adding network card to them. But since has been long since I worked with these cards, I figured I'd ask the obvious questions.

Is there a noticeable performance difference between ISA versus EISA ethernet cards?

Is there any increased chance of shorting with the double bus ISA and EISA cards? They appeal to my gadget sensibility but I have had bad experiences with other mulitple bus cards.

Any specific models to avoid?

Other comments will be appreciated.

 

[Unknown_K]

I have a few EISA systems (one P1 and the others are all 486) and there is no shorting problem that I know about mixing ISA in EISA slots (I have done it). Some systems were EISA only (like mine) and some had a couple EISA and the rest were ISA slots.

EISA 10/100 will be faster then 10MB ISA cards because of bus bandwidth and lower CPU utilization. There are probably some rare 10/100MB ISA cards but the bus just doesn't have the bandwidth to get any real speed from it. Probably not that much of a difference between 10MB EISA and ISA unless you have other cards hogging the ISA bus (which has low bandwidth).

Never heard of a bad EISA brand/model network card, they were all designed for server use. All you need to know is if the software you are running has drivers for the card you want to use. Anything 3COM should work with any OS.

 

[krebizfan]

Thanks for the input.

The query on cards shorting was regarding cards that when plugged into an EISA slot act as EISA card but if plugged into an ISA slot only act as an ISA card. Sounds like the perfect card to me providing full EISA performance while still being useful if I have to pull it from the EISA system.

 

[vwestlife]

Thanks for the input.

The query on cards shorting was regarding cards that when plugged into an EISA slot act as EISA card but if plugged into an ISA slot only act as an ISA card. Sounds like the perfect card to me providing full EISA performance while still being useful if I have to pull it from the EISA system.

I haven't heard such a thing. EISA requires taller card edge connectors with keyed notches, which would not physically fit into a regular ISA slot.

 

[krebizfan]

I haven't heard such a thing. EISA requires taller card edge connectors with keyed notches, which would not physically fit into a regular ISA slot.

I have seen a number of cards that had different interfaces; flip the card upside down to use the other interface. They seemed trouble causing gimmick than useful product. But I never saw a network card that did it and certainly no experience with a network card like that.

I think I will stick with picking up an extra ISA card and an EISA card. Simple is good.

 

[vwestlife]

I have seen a number of cards that had different interfaces; flip the card upside down to use the other interface. They seemed trouble causing gimmick than useful product. But I never saw a network card that did it and certainly no experience with a network card like that.

Flipover MCA / ISA cards were common because both bus types were common in the machines on end users' desks, depending on whether they had a PS/2, an AT, or a Joe-Schmo clone. But EISA was largely a specialized server bus, with little or no prevalence in end user machines. Plus, unlike MCA, EISA has backwards compatibility with ISA. So with all of these factors taken into account, the market for a flipover EISA / ISA network card would've been negligible. Any environment with a mix of EISA and ISA end user machines likely would've used regular ISA cards in all of them.