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USB to ISA Card Emulator System or the ISA-XT-USB Project

RubberTelly

Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
Messages
40
Location
Lismore, Australia
Questions:
1. Do I know there are USB to ISA converter cables?
2. Does the other way exist?
3. Can you emulate a Video Card(w BIOS) on an Intel I5 fast enough over a USB 2.0 Interface?
4. Why?

Answers:
1. Yes I do.
2. I don't think so...
3. I am a Software Engineer and Electronic Technician, I believe you can do it over original USB...
4. I own a Tandy 1000 RLX with only 1 ISA port currently used for 1MB Video, with the Built in jumperred off...I would like to play Rail Road Tycoon and other of Sid's games under 286 and push the capabilities of the 286 to it's edge.

Proposal:
We get together to make an 8bit ISA Card Emulator, in Software, for the 8088/80286 systems that captures 8 Bit ISA Communication and sends it to the Big PC via USB 2 for processing and response.

We start with the hardest task first, to make a video card that displays in a 24bit Direct2D window on a new Windoze Machine.

We then move on to emulate other subsystems for the 8 bit ISA socket( IDE, LAN, ect...).
 
I'm not sure that I know what you're trying to do. Are you trying to create an ISA plug-in board that emulates some give set of ISA cards and passes data up to a USB connection to a modern system?

I could see going the other way--creating a USB device with ISA slots in it that enables me to use some of my old ISA cards on a modern machine.

But exactly why do you want do the first?
 
In other words, a USB to ISA Bridge.

USB 2.0 is more than enough to give you full ISA bus speeds so yes you could run a video card on the bridge and have it connected to the I5 over the USB connection.

I'm not sure that I know what you're trying to do. Are you trying to create an ISA plug-in board that emulates some give set of ISA cards and passes data up to a USB connection to a modern system?
In other words he....uses the older system as a co-processor for 8 and 16-bit applications?? Seems excessive when you could probably do the same by making a PCI card and using an SOC design for all the other peripherals. Apple did it with the IIe PDS card.
 
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