ISA to PCI

[Computer_Commando]

Yes, $6000 for a PCI card I believe... and no, you weren't quibbling. A lot of industrial and scientific equipment still uses ISA.

That's for sure!  What do they think is in a nuclear power plant that was designed and built 40 years ago?  Lots of old stuff with lots of old chips.  There's a big market for old electronics because they can salvage the old chips for use in replacement components in all kinds of industrial and scientific equipment.

[Salmon Trout]

This locomotive, the BR class 91, not yet half way through its service life, has a control system that uses the 8086 microprocessor, and they had trouble sourcing new ones a few years ago when they were being refurbished.

[Computer_Commando]

...has a control system that uses the 8086 microprocessor, and they had trouble sourcing new ones a few years ago when they were being refurbished...

They probably paid 10X what it cost new!  Still a bargain...considering the alternative.

[BC_Programmer]

Why is the concept of specialized hardware so unbelievable? Why is it seemingly expected that software costs thousands of dollars for specialized applications and yet even the idea of specialized hardware in that dollar range is "absurd"?

Is there actually a belief that industries just plonk down a run of the mill desktop from wal-mart or something for interfacing with sophisticated scientific and industrial equipment?

There is a good reason that things like this have a habit to use older equipment- it works. There is no reason, ever, to change what works. Especially when upgrading a system like it can cost "absurd" amounts of money and often results in more problems down the road, and in some industries loss of life or the loss of entire research datasets because of a simple mistake. Look at something like the train. They don't just decide "well, we need the latest and greatest!" because the best case scenario is exactly the same as it already is. Companies don't invest in things that have no gain. If they were to upgrade the trains processor at some point to a 486 based control unit, there would be no difference. It would still work exactly the same. And if they were to upgrade to a early pentium who knows what the FDIV issue could have caused. a miscalculated value of a few cents on a excel spreadsheet on Joe Average's machine is a lot less of a problem then a derailed train due to a miscalculated division or something. The only reason for upgrade is due to corporate necessity, such as the current equipment being damaged or otherwise non-functional, or in some way no longer suitable for the current purpose.

[k_mohsen]

Sorry man, I must explain the definition of "SIMS". SIMS is abbreviation of "Secondary ion mass spectrometry" and Salmon Trout very well define this instrument in his post.

Thanks Salmon Trout, you look familiar with Lab instrument

Main problem of many Lab is replacing old or broken parts of a measuring instrument. The manufacturer of advanced Lab instrument in 1 or 2 years only sell one instrument. So, how they earn, that I say. The main source of their earning is selling accessories and old/broken parts. Sometimes they sell this parts 2x of real price. it's nettlesome but it's true.
for this instrument, if we change expansion card, we may have to change its software. maybe new expansion card connect to instrument with new type of cable.

some manufacturer of Lab instrument instead of encountering about some involutedly port like USB or Ethernet focused on their instrument and release their products that connect to PC with simple port like ISA or serial. recently our Lab buy a DSC (Differential scanning calorimetry) that connect to PC via COME port.

thanks Salmon Trout
thanks everyone