Most people don’t even know what ISA computers are – they had disappeared from the scene in the late 90s. Yet companies like interloper.com are keeping them alive because there are applications that need them.
Most I.T. Professionals, GenXers and Millenials alike have no idea what ISA slots are on a computer motherboards. In the early 90’s, they were state-of-the-art and as computers started getting widespread application in industry, many applications were developed using cards and SBCs that would go on the ISA slots inside a computer to control machinery and applications. The machinery being controlled may have a life span of 25 to 30 years and are worth millions of dollars. The computer cards that control them are worth maybe a few hundred dollars but without them, the machinery cannot run superslot.
As PCI, then AGP and now PCI Express slots took over, applications that still work on the good old ISA slots got orphaned. So they (interloper.com) scour the world to find these old parts, test and refurbish if possible and stock them. They even carry some new ISA motherboards made by very small companies to cater to this specialty niche.
ISA Computers and ISA motherboards come in various form factors like ATX, Baby AT and Micro ATX. In terms of CPU compatibility, there are just a couple of options for Pentium 4 and the rest are for Pentium III, II and the good old socket 7 Pentium CPUs. They only accept IDE hard drives so companies like Interloper.com keep a decent stock of such older IDE hard drives, CD-ROM drives, network cards, ISA video cards and even ISA modems. Yes some applications still require ISA modems. Hard to believe but it’s true.
You can read more about ISA Computers on their blog at http://baber.com/isa-computers/ or call them at 972-245-0340.
Incorporated in 2004, our focus has been on industrial computers, specialty computers, parts and kits. If your needs cannot be met by an off the shelf computer, then we may be the type of company that can help you. We can customize a computer that meets your requirements, whether it is a super de duper rackmount with redundant power supplies or a legacy computer with legacy ISA slots, we can handle it just fine.
Another area of strength for us is hard to find legacy parts like motherboards with ISA slots, IDE and SCSI hard drives, multi bay drive enclosures and removable trays.
Our motherboard search engine / configurator is very popular with our customers.
We also have a consulting / outsourcing unit – if you need help with programming, system administration, graphics design, SEO and data entry, contact us. We can certainly help you and save you money in the process.