Adapters enable PCIbus expansion

A new deal with Mobility Electronics gives Amplicon exclusive UK distributor rights for the company's full line of "Magma"-branded products.

The Magma range has been designed to enable multiple PCI peripheral cards to be interfaced to desktops, laptops or VME single board computers.

Mobility Electronics is a world leading provider of quality PCI expansion systems, which address physical slot number restrictions in notebooks, desktops and servers.

Most commonly used physical interfaces are provided, including PCI expansion for PCI, PCI Express, ExpressCard/54, PCMCIA Cardbus and PMC.

An additional option of a board set for expansion within a chassis for OEM developers is also available.

PCI has been the most common expansion standard in computers over the last 20 years.

However, most notebook computers usually have few or no PCI slots available because of space restrictions, featuring Cardbus PCMCIA slots as the favoured expansion option.

To allow notebook computers to take advantage of these low-cost, readily available PCI cards, the Magma range offers one, two or four Cardbus to PCI modules.

A more recent iteration of the PCMCIA standard, ExpressCard, can accommodate modules designed to use either USB 2.0, or PCI Express standards.

The Magma range features modules with options to add up to four PCI slots for each ExpressCard slot.

Desktop computers are often available with only single or dual PCI slots, but complete systems may require several more PCI peripherals than the internal PCI slots can provide.

The Magma range is designed to provide a solution in the form of four-, seven- or 13-slot PCI to PCI expansion systems, which are more than sufficient for the largest of connectivity requirements.

Most new PCs feature PCI Express slots, which are backward compatible with the PCI standard, but with a much higher data throughput to the microprocessor.

This means that a single PCI Express slot can support several PCI expansion cards at full PCIbus speeds.

To make full use of this, the Magma range offers a six PCI to PCI Express adapter.

Designed for use with VME single board computers, Mobility Electronics' PMC modules provide connection and control to seven PCI devices.

The PMC bus is based on the PCI standard with environmental and physical changes.

"Our promotion to sole UK distributor is a huge step forward for Amplicon and we are delighted to play a major part in supplying the Magma solution capability in the UK.

The recognition by Mobility Electronics reinforces our position as a market leader in sourcing and supplying innovative industrial computing solutions, as well as our high standards of service and customer care", commented Gina Citroni, Commercial Director for Amplicon.

This range of connectivity options augments Amplicon's range of professional computing products, providing industrial customers with a single source for all of their hardware requirements for any application.