said:
>
>> I don't even know what "backplane architecture" is,
>> but I recall some references to backplanes long ago.
>> Didn't Zenith use them in some of their early PC
>> designs ? (Not multiple CPUs, though. It would have
>> been a lone 8086 or perhaps 80186 . . . .) {Zenith
>> had a parallel development for awhile with HeathKit,
>> the kits from which you could build some early PCs.
>> The Zenith version came pre-built; the Heathkit
>> version you put together yourself was somewhat
>> cheaper. I think the last of these may have had an
>> 80386 in it.}
>
> The Heath/Zenith computers were, IIRC, based on the S-100 Buss. The S-100
> buss was a good example of the passive backplane architecture. And, I seem
> to recall that it was patterned (loosely) after the DEC PDP-11. I'm not sure
> where the ancestery goes from there, but I'm sure that even earlier examples
> can be found. The biggest problem with passive backplane is that signal
> paths tend to be a bit long.
>
My first PC was a Heath Kit 5151 (dual floppy), which was a PC clone that I
built in 1987. It also had a backplane and the CPU was on an ISA card that
plugged into the backplane. Also other cards like the video card and the
floppy drive adapter plugged into the backplane. Supposedly the concept
was that when a newer CPU came along you could plug in a new CPU board.
However no one else to my knowledge ever supported the concept and nothing
beyond the 8088 (and its clones like the NEC V20) was ever supported.
Which makes sense since ISA was an 8bit or 16bit bus.
Mark
--
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