hullo all..
I am not sure how many of us lurkers are on the list, but I guess
even our opinions/wishes/etc may find a use to the implementers, after all,
we may well buy one of these boards.
In terms of features, I guess the minimum list should be:
A nice fast video implementation. I guess i am in no position
to have an opinion as to how this should be implemented.
ISA would seem to be very important too, even if we have only
a partial implementation. I liked the idea that someone mentioned
about being able to implement a faster bus & using wait states
so that slower boards could cope with it. In any case, from the
pro ISA faction, it seems that there should be between 2& 4 max.
slots. 3 seems a nice round number, leaving room for a ether card,
perhaps a sound card & maybe extra serial/parallel or IDE interface
cards. Those arguing for other sorts of bus implementations have to
realise that not all of us can afford to give up whatever cards/drives
/etc that we may already have.
SCSI generally seems to be considered a necessity, and i have no
quibbles about that.
In terms of onboard ethernet, I am not so sure that it is so worthwhile.
If there was no ISA bus, then perhaps there would be more reason to
put it on the motherboard, but it seems that the cost of implementing
it is the same as buying a card.. no net gain for many users i would
guess.
Basically I am indifferent on questions about the amount of memory
that should be provided for on board, being one of those horribly
poor student types that will never be able to afford to ever fill
up all the banks in any case (unless it was with 256k simms that
are like grains of sand here). 64M with 4M simms would seem to be
enough (more than..) for any use that i would put the board to (heh,
even if i were to use it as a multi-user system). Of course, others
will have good cause for more ram.
Re parallel ports, serial, sound, flashing lights etc. Two serial
ports on board would seem to be the minimum & they needn't be
especially fast if their main use is going to be looking after mice
etc. I guess if you want speed, buy a card and put 16550's on it.
Parallel would be best handled by something on an ISA card. Someone
else mentioned that sound could be handled by a one bit speaker -
i guess i agree.. nothing fancy, just enough to make a machine that
can go 'ping' when we need it to. I guess if the Connection Machine
has some flashing lights, i don't see why we shouldnt ;-)
anyways enuff for now..
chris.
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