In a past blog, we talked about the evolution of PCI Express and specifically what advantages PCI Express Gen2 or PCIe 2.0 offers an industrial computer system over the previous PCI Express 1.1 interface technology. The main advantage of PCI Express 2.0 is a doubling of card-to-card interface speeds, which enables some impressive system data throughput improvements. Unlike many new computer technologies, the backwards compatibility with older PCIe 1.1 boards simplifies the PCIe 2.0 system integration task. PCI Express 2.0 interface connectivity is certainly becoming more common in the latest embedded motherboards, single board computers, system host boards and backplanes.
The question is, are there enough different types of PCI Express 2.0 option cards available today that will enable us to take full advantage of PCIe 2.0 in various embedded computing applications?
To try to answer this question, I went on a simple web search for different types of PCIe 2.0 option cards. Using some basic keyword phrases, a number of different PCI Express Gen 2 COTS option cards were found in just about an hour of looking.
| PCIe 2.0 Board Type | Brief Description | Model Name/Number | Vendor |
| Remote Graphics Card | A variety of single-slot & dual-slot PCIe 2.0 video card that enables two remote monitors | FirePro™ RG220 FirePro™ V8800 plus other select FirePro-series boards | ATI |
| Graphics Processing Unit | A variety of single & dual-slot PCIe 2.0 video cards that provide enhanced graphics and multi-monitor display capabilities. | GeForce 9600 GT GeForce 8800 GT | NVIDIA |
| Eight-port SATA+SAS Bus Adapter | This single-slot PCIe 2.0 card is used in data storage arrays and can drive up to 256 SAS or SATA devices | LSI™ SAS 9211-8i | LSI Corporation |
| SATA Host Adapter | These single-slot PCIe 2.0 cards support multiple eSATA or SATA III ports | S3-PCIE1XG201 S3-PCIE1XG202
| IOI Technology Corporation |
| USB 3.0 Expansion Card | This single-slot PCIe 2.0 card adds two additional USB 1.1/2.0/3.0 ports to the system design | PDU3 | Transcend |
| FPGA Accelerator Card | A single-slot PCIe 2.0 card with multiple-FPGA capability | PCIe-280 | Nallatech Interconnect Systems Inc. |
| Protocol Test Card | This single-slot PCIe 2.0 card is a PCIe 2.0 compliance test board | PE020AGA-X | LeCroy |
Option card technology always seems to lag processor card innovations, but I was happy to uncover quite a bit of variety in available PCI Express 2.0 option cards. Obviously, there are a lot of PCIe Gen2 video and graphics cards available, but you can see that other card types are also available.
Trenton’s JXT6966 or JXTS6966 system host board, NTM6900 or WTM7026 embedded motherboard, BPC7041 or BPC7009 PCI backplane are examples of PCIe 2.0 embedded computing hardware that supports all the different COTS card technologies including the PCI Express Gen2 cards listed above.
Whether your application is aimed at Test & Measurement, Industrial Automation or Communications, Trenton’s extensive product line and 30+ years of engineering expertise can create a customer-driven platform that takes advantage of the latest PCI Express 2.0 technology.
Trenton's TSB7053 System Host Board
