The PCI
Express is the new standard serial connectivity card in PCI
technology and the successor for server- and client-system
I/O interconnects. In addition to the bus technology
upgrades, such as faster speeds and deeper FIFO rates, the
PCI Express Card touts many advantages over the traditional
PCI card including point-to-point link dedicated to each
device, instead of PCI shared bus; lower latency in server
architectures due to a more direct connection to the chip
set; small connectors with easier implementation for system
designers and advanced features via isochronous channels for
guaranteed bandwidth delivery, advanced power management and
hot swap support.
The PCI Express Cards are available in 2, 4 or 6 port serial
card configurations and offer high-speed, serial I/O bus
that maintains backward compatibility with PCI applications
and drivers. The layered architecture supports existing PCI
applications and drivers by maintaining compatibility with
existing PCI model. Defined by high performance, scalable,
serial bus, the PCI Express card is dedicated to the device
while multiple PCI Express devices can be active without
interfering with each other.
Quatech also offers 2 port parallel
cards; 2 and 4 port serial/parallel I/O cards and PCI Express to ExpressCard
converters.
As client system boards migrate from
the PCI connector to the PCI Express connector, Quatech’s PCI Express Card
maximizes advanced features such as:
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Advanced power management
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Support for real-time data
traffic |
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Hot plug and hot swap
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Data integrity and error handling
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Although PCI and UPCI Cards can be
used in a variety of platforms, the PCI Express reflects an industry trend to
replace legacy shared parallel buses with high-speed serial buses. They both
have the same dimensions and are equipped with rear brackets, the difference
lies in the I/O connectors. PCI Express has 36 pins versus the 120 pins on a
standard PCI connector.
