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Trance Forum ť ť Forum Production & Music Making - PCI and PCI-X vs. PCI Express

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PCI and PCI-X vs. PCI Express

Trip-
IsraTrance Team

Started Topics : 101
Posts : 3239
Posted : Aug 15, 2006 12:25

A few facts about the technologies for us the music machine builders (as taken from m-audio.com):

PCI-Express not backward compatible with PCI and PCI-X

In comparison to PCI and PCI-X, PCI-Express is a newer standard with a different form factor. PCI-Express adapters are not backward compatible to PCI or PCI-X. Not only are the data rates on PCI-Express different from PCI/PCI-X, but PCI-Express uses serial data transfers versus PCI/PCI-X transferring its data in a parallel fashion. For these reasons, a PCI-Express type motherboard connector (or "slot") is physically different from a PCI or PCI-X type connector. Therefore a PCI-Express adapter will not physically fit in a PCI or PCI-X slot, and vice-versa. This is true regardless of the adapter card's manufacturer.

M-Audio actively investigates new technologies including PCI-Express. Please visit the M-Audio website for information about upcoming PCI-Express releases.

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PCI Express, PCIe, or PCI-E (not to be mistaken for PCI-X) is an implementation of the PCI computer bus that uses existing PCI programming concepts, but bases it on a completely different and much faster serial physical-layer communications protocol. PCI Express was formerly known as Arapaho or 3GIO for 3rd Generation I/O. PCIe transfers data at 250 MB/s (238 MiB/s), per channel to a maximum of 16 channels, a total combined transfer rate of 4GB/s (3.7 GiB/s).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

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PCI Express compatible:

Apogee's Symphony
http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/symphony.php

MOTU's PCIe-424
http://www.motu.com/techsupport/technotes/pcie-424-compatibility

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As it seems,
going the FireWire way today is a good insurance for future compatibility with newer computers, while still using it today also.

Crackling universes dive into their own neverending crackle...
AgalactiA

psylevation
IsraTrance Full Member

Started Topics : 52
Posts : 841
Posted : Aug 21, 2006 02:53

I didn't know that, I appreciate the information, and now I know

Colin OOOD
Moderator

Started Topics : 95
Posts : 5380
Posted : Aug 21, 2006 18:16

People using multiple digital outputs alongside DSP cards like the UAD-1 or Powercore will benefit greatly from PCI-E, as this massively increases the number of simultaneous audio channels possible through the PCI buss... I know of someone who integrates a lot of hardware into their G5-based studio with 32 digital inputs who is selling his UAD-1 because he can only run 3 plugins on it before the PCI buss starts dropping out.

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Contact for bookings/mastering - colin@oood.net

Trip-
IsraTrance Team

Started Topics : 101
Posts : 3239
Posted : Aug 21, 2006 18:26

thanks for mentioning those 2 -

UAD-1 PCIe:

http://www.uaudio.com/products/digital/expertpak/index.html

Powercore Express PCIe:

http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCorePCImkII

cheers.

Crackling universes dive into their own neverending crackle...
AgalactiA

Trance Forum ť ť Forum Production & Music Making - PCI and PCI-X vs. PCI Express