Two Questions

kesjw

Is there another word for mesh?

e.g mesh topology

If the ISA bus on a AT system in 16 bit then how much bits is an ISA bus on an ATX system?

From what I know ISA only provides 8 or 16 bits, right?

Thanks in advance!

RussS

I have heard it referred to as a Star Mesh topology, but can't think of any other name expect for Hybrid - which also include Star Bus and a couple others.

lazyart

The ISA bus is the same regardless of the motherboard type being used.
It is a 16-bit bus, but it does accept 8-bit cards.

If you can get your hands on some motherboards, you will instantly see the difference in AT and ATX-- AT has a larger connection for the keyboard, and that keyboard connector is the ONLY connector physically integrated onto the board. Serial, parallel, USB, video, game and mouse connectors are usually attached with small ribbon cables. Not all of those connections will necessarily exist either.

With ATX you will find most of those items on the back of the board (some boards include so many features that they don't fit, so the lesser used ones --game and serial-- are ribboned). Anything that isn't attached is likely very new technology or older stuff (again, game and serial) that is essentially superceded by USB.

As for mesh, I don't think you will see that on Core.. I hadn't heard of it until a couple weeks myself, and the way it was diagrammed just confused me with another topology (I won't say which, so as to save you from the same). Mesh is also very expensive to deploy over anything but the tiniest of networks (each machine is connected directly to every other machine-- that is a lot of NICs to purchase!). For example, to add a single machine to an existing 3 user LAN requires 3 NICs in the new PC, plus three more NICs to connect the other machines to it. However this setup means there is no single point of vulernability to the LAN.

Wyldstar

Mesh topology is something you're much more likely to see on N+ than on A+ core. True mesh topologies are pretty rare. Usually, you'll see hybrid or partial mesh topologies used to connect routers to have redundant paths set up in case a router should fail.

The only time you'll really see an 8 bit ISA card/slot is on very ancient machines. The standard was origingally developed as an 8 bit standard then improved to 16 bit later.

- WS

Drakonblayde

While on the subject of ISA, remember that EISA is 32-bit, but also happens to be backwards compatible. The Form Factor doesn't really affect the bus though.

The main reason I love ATX is because I don't have to deal with expansion cards sitting right over the CPU.

bellboy

systems built using atx towers are a joy to work with - there is just so much room and no clutter. i never liked working on desktops, atx or otherwise.