Industry Standard Architecture

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

Industry Standard Architecture
AT bus architecture
ISA bus

   <architecture, standard> (ISA) A {bus} {standard} for {IBM
   compatibles} that extends the {XT bus architecture} to 16
   bits.  It also allows for {bus mastering} although only the
   first 16 {MB} of {main memory} is available for direct access.
   In reference to the XT bus architecture it is sometimes
   referred to as "AT bus architecture".

   Compare {EISA}, {MCA}.

   (1996-06-25)