Yeah I said IDE in the comment you're replying to. IDE or ATA is a subset of the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), but yeah you're right - I should have said IDE cable in OC. Forgive me, it's been a while.
I don't doubt there are specialized boards out there that have no modern functional equivalent (esp. industrial apps), but you CAN connect to stuff using GPIB (IEEE 488) with a Pi, so that's not one of them.
If legacy OS/app support is your issue I'm not sure it's going to give you much value booting your 486 with a linux distro today (what the post was about, and the context in which my comment was made about the Pi).
If you're locked into the 486-generation hardware interfaces and the Windows/DOS software platform, and CAN'T leverage hardware interface bridges and software emulators on modern systems with horsepower to spare, you're talking about the edge cases of the edge cases.
My point was never directed at the edge cases of the edge cases. I said "I see little advantage in keeping the old hardware around". The rare edge cases are represented by that "little advantage" I CAN see. But it's little, man. Most situations where a 486 would offer any utility today, particularly on Linux but not only that, a $50 3-watt Pi can do the job better, cheaper and cleaner.
Those things are the embodiment of "generally useful" - A low power, small form-factor, relatively high-power compute platform with an easy to use GPIO header and libraries for many languages, able to leverage most Debian packages (including DOS emulators). I admit it doesn't meet 100% of planetary need, but it's right up there with anti-lock brakes, microwavable meals, and stretchy pants in my book. Convince me otherwise.
I don't doubt there are specialized boards out there that have no modern functional equivalent (esp. industrial apps), but you CAN connect to stuff using GPIB (IEEE 488) with a Pi, so that's not one of them.
If legacy OS/app support is your issue I'm not sure it's going to give you much value booting your 486 with a linux distro today (what the post was about, and the context in which my comment was made about the Pi).
If you're locked into the 486-generation hardware interfaces and the Windows/DOS software platform, and CAN'T leverage hardware interface bridges and software emulators on modern systems with horsepower to spare, you're talking about the edge cases of the edge cases.
My point was never directed at the edge cases of the edge cases. I said "I see little advantage in keeping the old hardware around". The rare edge cases are represented by that "little advantage" I CAN see. But it's little, man. Most situations where a 486 would offer any utility today, particularly on Linux but not only that, a $50 3-watt Pi can do the job better, cheaper and cleaner.
Those things are the embodiment of "generally useful" - A low power, small form-factor, relatively high-power compute platform with an easy to use GPIO header and libraries for many languages, able to leverage most Debian packages (including DOS emulators). I admit it doesn't meet 100% of planetary need, but it's right up there with anti-lock brakes, microwavable meals, and stretchy pants in my book. Convince me otherwise.