Subj : Re: USB to ISA device
To   : Kirkspragg
From : AKAcastor
Date : Fri May 03 2024 15:30:52

 AK> Speaking of weird USB stuff - I have a USB to ISA interface from ARS
 AK> Technologies, it's an interesting device but definitely not plug n
 AK> play.http://arstech.com/install/ecom-prodshow/usb2isax3.html

 k> Thanks for sharing thats really interesting, what ISA 
 k> cards have you got working this way & how did you use them? 

I haven't actually done very much with the USB2ISA, it turns out it isn't exactly a simple plug and play solution to add an ISA bus to a modern computer. :)  I poked at a modem a bit with it, but I haven't really USED it for anything so far.

What it does is it provides a USB interface to access ISA cards - the catch is that nothing else knows how to interface with an ISA card over the USB interface, so you have two choices: a) write your own software that will interface with the ISA card, or b) run a special version of DOSBox that supports USB2ISA, then DOS programs can access the ISA cards.

There's a short thread on vogons.org about it here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=61863

A few years ago, Foone posted a twitter thread with their experiments:
https://twitter.com/foone/status/1228127962320404480

When looking this up, I also came across someone else's similar project for an ISA-over-USB adapter that they called ISASTM:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/jbaw38/isaoverusb_using_real_isa_cards_in_an_emulator/


Chris/akacastor

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