from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Extended Industry-Standard Architecture
EISA
<architecture, standard> (EISA) /eesa/ A {bus} standard for
{IBM compatibles} that extends the {ISA} bus architecture to
32 bits and allows more than one {CPU} to share the bus. The
{bus mastering} support is also enhanced to provide access to
4 GB of memory. Unlike {MCA}, EISA can accept older {XT bus
architecture} and {ISA} boards.
EISA was announced in late 1988 by compatible vendors as a
counter to {IBM}'s MCA in its {PS/2} series. Although
somewhat inferior to the MCA it became much more popular due
to the proprietary nature of MCA.
[Main sponsors? Open standard?]
(1996-06-25)