[rescue] Vesa Local Bus video cards

[Phil Stracchino]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2003 at 03:49:18PM -0500, Kevin Loch wrote:
> Kevin wrote:
> >I paid like $350 for a 2meg VLB Diamond Viper, but that was
> >probably much later than you guys are referring to. 
> >Probably around August/September 1993. Still have that card
> >working in my 66.
> >
> >Wasn't VLB faster in some tests than the first gen PCI stuff
> >was?
> >
> 
> Yes, VLB could run at 40MHz (on a dx2-80 or 120)
> but pci maxed out at 33MHz.  VLB also
> probably had lower latency since there was
> no controller interface?

Problem was, VLB was very limited in capacity.  You could have three VLB
slots on a 25MHz bus, but the spec only allowed two on a 33MHz bus and
one at 40MHz.  At bus speeds over 40MHz, you couldn't use VLB at all.

The future of local bus also wasn't helped, of course, by the period
during which it seemed every manufacturer had their own proprietary
local bus, and none of them were compatible or interoperable.  That
kinda made local-bus a dirty word among people who wanted to be able to
get the most out of their machines.  At the time, EISA was a technically
better solution, certainly a more completely thought out solution, and
the PC-based server market went with EISA, which pretty much nailed the
coffin lid down on local bus.  OK, so it might be a slightly slower bus,
but you could have as many 32-bit slots as you could afford.

Of course, EISA promptly became obsolete when PCI came out.

 
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