CertiGuide to A+ (Core Hardware)  9  Chapter 0000:  The Start of the PC       9  IV  PC Technology Evolution

PS2 1 VLB

Looking at millions of dollars in royalties, nine companies called the Gang Of Nine, formulated an alternative to the MCA expansion slot.

The Gang of Nine -- AST, Compaq, Epson, HP, NEC, Olivetti, Tandy, WISE, Zenith -- took the royalty free expansion design of the IBM PC, known as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), and then, went down below the electrical contacts of the ISA expansion bus to create a second row of contacts and called this Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA).

With this creation, the battle of the 32-bit expansion bus began.

PS2 1 VLB