Industry Standard Architecture(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)