On 6/4/2015 10:17 PM, Rafael wrote: > While processors are ever more powerful, computer design is running into > the same issues mainframe and industrial computers did decades ago. > Industrial computers just happen to be larger in those days. Designers > figured out that a universal or standard backplane provides most > flexibility in terms of electronic and mechanical design. > > Unfortunately, BBB and Arduino, RaspberryPi designers did not take > advantage of that kind of architecture and we ended up with very limited > options. Too many times people think of a new idea but forget to visit a > computer museum to see how others have solved the same or similar > problems before. > > Good computer architecture includes a backplane, passive or active. > Digital computers were among the most popular low cost industrial > computers many years ago. Some used 4 slot backplanes, others more with > possibility to use expanders for additional interfaces. Some interfaces > used only part of the bus to save space.
The S-100 bus was a widely used design, though not all companies arranged their use of the 100 lines the same so there's a lot of electrically incompatible S-100 hardware. Texas Instruments could have recovered their investment in the "nuclear bomb proof" Peripheral Expansion System box for their 99-4 and 99-4/A Home Computer by re-purposing it as an industrial control system backplane in an extremely durable housing. With a beefy, unregulated, linear power supply, eight slots with 60 pins that except for the power lines could be configured any way a company using the box for their system wanted. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
