The Extended Industry Standard Architecture subcommitee is planning a 64-bit replacement for EISA bus that will transfer multiple data packets at rates faster than 200Mb per second. The new bus is expected to be launched later this year on Intel Corp Pentium-based machines and is being developed by for the subcommittee by National Semiconductor Corp. But versions configured for existing AT and EISA-based systems are also planned. According to US press reports, the 64-bit bus architecture will be backwards-compatible with AT and EISA boards, but they will not be able to upgrade to the higher performance. Instead, the new bus will be designed as an asynchronous bus capable of handling streaming data. The EISA bus was originally developed by a consortium of nine companies led by Compaq Computer Corp that did not want IBM Corp’s pricey-to-license Micro Channel wished upon them.
