Hello!

I am thinking of implementing an ISA-Bus using an 8052, preferably 16-bit, and probably using a Philips XA microcontroller. Has anyone done this before?

I have a reasonable amount of information about the workings of the ISA bus, but feel that it might not be enough. Does anyone have perhaps the exact specification for the bus?

In the end I am looking to be able to use various periphials primarily designed for use with PCs... sound-cards, graphics-cards, parallel-ports etc...

Obviously I am aware that devices like parallel-ports are fairly easy to build from latches etc.. and sound-cards aren't that difficult to construct. I am mainly concerned with being able to interface an SVGA graphics card.

Unfortunately it seems ISA hardware is on its way out due to the uprising of the PCI bus... and rightly so as far as PC hardware is concerned.. but I think getting an 8052 of any description to interface with PCI hardware is perhaps asking a bit too much, so I'll stick with tha ISA bus. Now all I've got to do is find an old ISA graphics card with a decent amount of RAM on it!

Of course if anybody knows of a VGA controller which is easy to interface with a microcontroller, please let me know!!! I would like it to be at least capable of 800x600x8-bit graphics.

Cheers,

Matt.