> It was a long time ago but the PLX9052 was designed to facilitate ISA to > PCI conversions. I can't recall all the details but I doubt it would > support DMA as this is more something that would require a PCI bus master > (I seem to recall) and from memory the 9050 series was a slave > only device > - and hence much easier to implement. > > http://www.plxtech.com > > (With the higher bandwidth of PCI over ISA/DMA and the faster computers > available these days, are you sure DMA is necessary?) > > I am sure there are others with more recent PCI experience than me that > will correct me.
Ian, Thanks for the thoughts. I did look at the PLX parts a few months back, but as you suspect, DMA is not supported. The reason for the question was really related to company resources. The best 'engineering' solution would be to do a PCI design, almost from the ground up, but as we have a huge investment in software that already works, and the driver code development would be far from trivial, we were hoping for a stop-gap solution that would be more akin to 'Lego' electronics, with no software development requirement at all. This way we could continue to sell products, hence making more profit that we could spend on brand new design efforts. I have an open enquiry with National Semiconductor, asking pretty much the same question. I think I could have obtained a very quick answer to the question, if I could have spoken to an Engineer. Alas, this is not possible - AT ALL. There seems to be no way to contact 'proper' Engineers by 'phone any more (Dallas Semiconductor used to be very good - maybe they still are?). Email is the accepted panacea, which is fine if more than the usual automated 'Have you checked our web site' response is the outcome. It rarely is. I'm rambling now, but it used to be the case (5 years ago, anyway) that contact with the actual person that was involved with the chip design wasn't out of the question. Now, it's generally easier to speak to God. Steve. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
