Whatever happened to x86-64?

[Yousuf Khan]

MCA was a good thing, considering IBM's customers (remember, MCI PnP
worked) and how poorly ISA worked. The politics of MCA weren't what most
people think. MCA was openly licensed and for small money. Control was
what the anti-MCA thing was all about. MCA had it all over every other
attempt at a bus until PCI (controlled by Intel, which was somehow a good
thing). Even PCI had severe growing pains.

Wasn't the MCA license available for a 5% royalty per system? Not so little.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Del Cecchi]

MCA was a good thing, considering IBM's customers (remember, MCI PnP
worked) and how poorly ISA worked. The politics of MCA weren't what
most
people think. MCA was openly licensed and for small money. Control
was
what the anti-MCA thing was all about. MCA had it all over every other
attempt at a bus until PCI (controlled by Intel, which was somehow a
good
thing). Even PCI had severe growing pains.

PS/2 mouses and keyboards have been around for 20 years and will be
around
for a good while yet. That's not so bad, given how technology moves.
Not
that PS/2 ports were much to write home about anyway (just a form
factor
change from the AT keyboard connector taht's a quarter century old).
I'd
rather not go to USB for such things (what gain?). USB is just too
complicated for such a simple thing as a mechanical human interface.
I'll keep my Model-Ms, thanks anyway.

But they didn't have the brilliant idea to donate the MCA bus to MCA sig
that they created and populated with their ecosystem so it would be
"open" yet controllable. That was a stroke of genius by intel with PCI.
Or at least it seems that way.

del cecchi