ISA slot motherboards

18 September 2013 Computer/Embedded Technology

As technology moves forward and new motherboard formats become available with PCI, and now PCIe slots, it is becoming more important to users of older equipment to ensure that they have backup for older systems that are still making use of ISA slot plug-in boards.

Many industrial machines and instruments have custom or legacy ISA boards for data acquisition and control purposes. The production value of these machines and instruments is huge compared to the cost of backup motherboards for the controlling PCs.

As Centurion Micro Electronics’ Henry Hugo puts it, “The cost of lost production when a machine breaks down can run into hundreds of thousands if not millions. The cost of backup computer equipment is relatively small compared to this potential loss.

“IT and factory managers who have production machines and instruments using legacy ISA slot motherboards can find suitable replacement and backup motherboards to ­ensure the continued operation of their ­machines and ensure the minimum of downtime. The cost of a backup board on a shelf is miniscule compared to the cost of lost production when a production machine breaks down.”

Other issues include software that was written by persons or companies that are no longer available to support the systems. Any replacement motherboard for these PCs must be capable of running the software without modification. Often the original source code is not available or was written in languages that are difficult to support and the programs must run simply as is with support for the existing drivers and plug-in boards.

Centurion Micro Electronics has several options of motherboards that support two or three ISA slots and older socket 478 or socket 775 CPUs. DOS, Windows 98, Millenium, NT4.0, 2000 and XP can all still be supported. Linux and its various derivatives can also be supported.

For more information contact Henry Hugo, Centurion Micro Electronics, +27 (0)21 851 4904, [email protected], www.cme.co.za.

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