From: aws@ll.mit.edu (Alan Stone)
Subject: My alleged VL-Bus machine
Originator: aws@ll.mit.edu (Alan Stone)
Keywords: VL-Bus EISA
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington MA
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 18:41:06 GMT



I very recently purchased an EISA LOCAL Bus 486DX50 machine from a cloner
in California called Microlink. My motivations for using them as a
vendor were:

	(1) they were one of a few companies that offered LB and EISA on one
		motherboard

	(2) the LB and LB cards conformed to the new VESA standard

	(3) they offered a reasonably priced 32-bit LB IDE controller (as
		opposed to a 16-bit ISA controller - hey, I have 2 LB slots -- let's
		use 'em!)

	(4) decent price

	(5) 2-year warranty (assuming they're still around, but hey..)

I tried working with Cornell but thier salesman was fairly uncooperative. My
dilemma is that I am not convinced that my motherboard's LB and the cards
(video and IDE) which plug in there are not PROPRIETARY (i.e., *not* VESA
conformant), even though the saleman swears they are. Here's what I do know:

-	when my system first arrived, I naturally opened it up to make sure all
	the upgrades I paid for were in place. Lo and behold, what was supposed
	to be a 32-bit LB IDE cache controller card in the second LB slot turned
	out to be a straight 16-bit ISA IDE card (duh and duh). An honest mistake?
	After a call the correct board was shipped.

-	all my cards are made in Taiwan (fine) except I can't call the manufacturer
	(a company called Joint Data) directly and simply ask.

-	a friend gave me several articles about the recent ratification of
	the VL-Bus spec. In one was a diagram of the VL-B pinout assignments. They
	are not the same as the pinouts listed in my motherboard doc. Hmm.

-	I called the VESA comittee office to see if Joint Data was a member, since
	I had seen article partially listing new members jumping onto the VL_Bus
	bandwagon (S3, ATI, OPTi, etc). Joint Data was not among their members.

-	I had a friend call Microlink and pose as a potential buyer. When he
	specifically asked if the motherboard and expansion cards were VL-Bus
	compliant, he said yes to the motherboard, but waffled on the IDE card.
	This was the same person who had told me that evrything conformed.

-	The ratification JUST occurred (when I purchased the machine I did not
	realize that the VL-Bus was that young). Could these guys really have
	conforming boards that quick? - or are they dumping their stockpile of
	proprietary boards (on me and others) before actually going to VESA?

The nice woman at VESA offered a floppy which apparently runs a set of
conformance tests to determine compliance, but it was $100 for non-members
like me 8^( . Even if I wished to spend the money, I don't know if I could
get it before my "30-day test drive" is over.

My question, then, is: does anyone out there know of a way for me to
confirm what it is I have here? I am not that much of a hardware guy
(obviously) and am fairly new to PCs in general having spent all my time
on workstations. I am still within the "30-day test drive period", so if
I can't convince myself that I got what I paid for, I can ship it back
and maybe even get a refund.

I would also appreciate any feedback about other's experience with this
vendor.

Please respond to my email address. Thanks in advance.