🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Aug20.195630.5993@awdprime.austin.ibm.com> wjc@guardian.austin.ibm.com writes:

> I have been shopping around for 486/EISA system for the past week
> or so (primarily inteneded for OS/2 development work). Some of the 
> vendors I have encountered have claimed that
> their EISA systems will be "upgradeable" to the 586/P5 processor
> sometime next spring. I had thought that the 586 was to be a
> completely different chip architecture, and that compatibility
> with existing motherboards would therefore be unlikely. What is
> the net.opinion on this subject? Will it be possible to upgrade a 486
> system to a 586, or is this just vendor hype? Please post
> responses to the net, as I guarantee that you will have trouble
> reaching me via E-mail.
> 

Well I believe Digital is doing something with EISA.

                  NT enthusiasm spurs details on Alpha PC's
                            Digital Review 7/27/92

The PC servers, claimed to be five times faster than those based on Intel's 
50Mhz 80486 processor, will be configured with either Windows NT, Open VMS or
OSF/1 and will support existing EISA bus peripherals.

...

  "The [Alpha] subsystem will go in the same box as the 450 ST.  You could
upgrade by swapping out the insides of the 450.  It will use the same monitor,
same EISA controllers and peripherals.  But you're not going to throw away a
450 ST," said Jeffrey Schriesheim, group manager for Windows NT systems
software at DEC.
  The system, based on the EV-4 version of the Alpha 21064 processor, will be
priced between $6,000 and $7,000 with 256MB of main memory and five EISA slots,
he said.
  NT will be the primary operating system, said Robert Supnik, DEC's vice
president of advanced VAX/VMS systems engineering.

...

  "We will use the PCI-to-EISA bridge in future systems.  It's just that it
won't be available for a few months," Schriesheim said.  "We're working with
Intel on it.  This time next year PCI will be the right solution."

			Rob


                                                     young@tattoo.cs.widener.edu
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not 
  become a monster.  And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks
     into you."  --Nietzsche