Advantech's Half-size CPU Card PCI Solution

The trend in recent years for both SBCs and CPU cards, in both the consumer and industrial fields, is to move from using ISA-bus cards to using PCI-bus cards. A 1997 Embedded PC survey reported that in 1997, 17% of IPC used PCI-bus, whereas 37% of IPCs would use PCI-bus by 1999. In addition, Intel and Microsoft's PC'98 standard for desktops and notebooks no longer supports the ISA bus. This is happening because PCI is higher performance (32-bits at 33 MHz, vs 8-/16-bits at 8 MHz for ISA), has a smaller size slot than ISA, and now is nearly the same price as ISA.

Advantech's Solution

Currently, Advantech provides a full-size CPU card solution that supports both ISA and PCI by employing the PICMG standard. For half-size CPU cards, Advantech will employ NLX form factor cards, on which ISA and PCI-buses are both supported and physically separated. This reduces signal interference more than PISA (another PCI-ISA solution). NLX is also an alliance standard supported by Intel and IBM. Furthermore, supporting both PCI and ISA is better than a PCI-only solution because this ISA-to-PCI transition phase will last several years. NLX form factor boards can also preserve your previous ISA investments and provide one with the upward growth potential made possible with a PCI bus.

Advantech's NLX Boards and Backplanes

By the first quarter of 1999, Advantech will begin to sell its new PCN-6351 NLX Half-size Pentium MMX-based CPU Card. This card, besides fitting half-size CPU card dimensions, will also include several features on board, such as 100Base-T Ethernet, VGA and LCD interfaces, as well as sockets for Solid State Disks. Besides this high-powered, compact CPU card, Advantech also offers NLX backplanes in two sizes: 4 slot (1 NLX, 2 PCI, 1 ISA) and 6 slot (1 NLX, 3 PCI, 2 ISA). The 4-slot backplane is the PCA-6106NP2, while the 6-slot backplane is the PCA-6106NP3.

Total System Solution

Besides offering half-size CPU cards and NLX-based backplanes, Advantech also provides chassis in which to install everything. Our IPC-644 is perfect for our 4-slot card, while the IPC-6806S is perfect for all of our 6-slot CPU cards.