architecture, standard (EISA) /eesa/ A
bus standard for IBM compatibles that extends the
ISA bus architecture to 32 bits and allows more than one
CPU to share the bus. The
bus mastering support is also enhanced to provide access to 4 GB of memory. Unlike
MCA, EISA can accept older
XT bus architecture and
ISA boards.
EISA was announced in late 1988 by compatible vendors as a counter to
IBM's MCA in its
PS/2 series. Although somewhat inferior to the MCA it became much more popular due to the proprietary nature of MCA.
[Main sponsors? Open standard?]
(1996-06-25)