It was developed in response to the IBM efforts with the Michrochannel Architecture (MCA). My understanding is that MCA was technologically advanced to the point of being far superior to the ISA and the older XT/PC architectures. These companies could not use the MCA technologies in their products due to the expensive licensing fees charged by IBM. Consequently, the group is supposed to have implemented the MCA technologies in their designed technologies.
It was to be a 32-bit design to increace the capabilities of ISA, and to compete with the 32-bit design of the MCA. With this increase in bus width and using an 8.33 MHz clock, the EISA can reach a theoretical 33 MB/s transfer rate. MCA at this time responded with a bus clock rate of 20Mhz and a 'potential' bus transfer of 160MB/s far outstripping the EISA. However, the EISA development group responded by beginning work on an EISA-2 specification that will move data at a potential transfer rate of 132 MB/s.
In actuallity, neither MCA or EISA had a great influence on the market and the concept of a 'Local Bus' was introduced in 1991 by NEC became the most important concept in buses, and led later to the VESA Local Bus, and the PCI Local Bus. However, there are still a few motherboards available which have EISA bus in conjunction with PCI buses.