Re: regarding future plans for EMC

[Brian Pitt <bfp-at-earthlink.net>]

> ISA has reached the end of its life and should be quietly buried.
> Sure its easy to design an isa card. but pci is not a lot harder.
> A remote box , say with ethernet and a socket interface makes sense.
> Rabbits and other things can support ethernet with just a couple of
> chips.

many new motherboards have already replaced the one remaining ISA 
slot of last years models with the new CNR slot that may be even easier 
to work with check it out
from the
communication and networking riser (CNR) specification
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp/manuals/intel/cnrspec.pdf

the CNR bus signals include
SMBus (I2C) (some info at http://people.freebsd.org/~nsouch/iicbus.html)
this one is also available on the sdram slots
Philips has some 'dumb' I2C->8bit parallel I/O port chips and many
micros support the I2C bus for a firm PLC type module much like this 
one http://httpd.chello.nl/~f.vdburgh/picbit/

Microwire bus (can use SPI/Microwire DACs like the Maxim MAX5170 )
the MAX5170 is a 14bit D/A chip that can be daisychained and also
has a programable digital out pin (use for amp enable?) it takes a
16bit command sowith  6 DACs in series = 96bits at 100kbs or higher 
would still give >1khz servo update rate so the serial bus speed wouldnt 
be a problem

I havent found a simple serial encoder interface solution yet (PIC?)

others
USB (version 1 or 2)
AC`97 interface (audio and modem)
8 and 17 pin LAN interface

and power
+12v,-12v,+5v,+3.3v and Gnd returns

next generation STG ???

Brian