I have a user with an Olympus UH3 acoustic microscope, circa 1988 that communicates via a A DOS based program through a GPIB ISA card on an old '286 HP Vectra PC.
We would like to update the computer to something sustainable, and I'm looking for sugestions. Hopefully, somebody has some experience with DOS programs on more modern equipment.
I am considering the purchase of a PCI based GPIB IEE-488.2 card to replace the vintage card, but I'm wondering what the latest hardware/OS combination is that will communicate via direct hardware access (interrupts, etc.).
Does anybody have experience running an emulated DOS on things like this that require direct hardware access? If not, suggestions on running actual DOS would be appreciated. I do have an old Pentium III that I might try, and at least that supports a VGA monitor and IDE hard drives. This HP '286 belongs in a museum ;-)