General Standards PCI-HPDI32A-1M High-Speed Parallel Digital I/O PCI Board

The General Standards PCI-HPDI32A-1M is a high-speed parallel digital I/O PCI board engineered for demanding data acquisition and real-time control applications. It delivers 32 channels of differential I/O with configurable transceiver technology

RS422/485, PECL, or LVDS - enabling flexible integration into industrial automation, laboratory instrumentation, and embedded systems. The board combines a PCI-DMA engine with deep FIFO buffering to sustain continuous data flow independent of host CPU intervention, making it ideal for applications requiring deterministic, uninterrupted I/O streaming.

Technical Specifications

Form Factor: PCI (PCI Specification 2.1 / PCI v2.2 64-bit, 66 MHz compliant)

Data Width: 32 bits

PCI Bus Transfer Rate: Up to 132 Mbytes/second (burst mode)

Cable I/O Transfer Rates:

RS422/485: 80 Mbytes/second maximum

PECL: 200 Mbytes/second

LVDS (selected models): 200 Mbytes/second

Clock Rates:

RS422/485: Up to 20 MHz

PECL: Up to 50 MHz

Sample Rate: 20 MHz (standard); 25 MHz/100 Mbytes/second (RS422/485 or PECL)

FIFO Buffering: Up to 512 Kbytes per channel; 1 Mbyte total capacity across eight FIFOs (four transmit, four receive)

DMA Engine: PLX-based PCI-DMA with D32 block transfers, DMA chaining, and <1 microsecond start latency

Key Features

Eight independent FIFOs with programmable Almost Empty and Almost Full thresholds

Differential transceiver options with noise immunity and surge protection

RS422/485 transceivers: ±7.5 V noise immunity, ±25 V transient withstand

PECL transceivers: High-output drivers for 50 Ω loads

LVDS transceivers: ±140–360 mV differential voltage, ±100 mV receiver threshold

On-board parallel termination (150 Ω, removable for multidrop)

Plug-and-play PCI initialization

Typical Applications

High-speed parallel data acquisition

Industrial process control and monitoring

Test and measurement instrumentation

Real-time embedded I/O systems

Cable-based remote digital interfacing

Compatibility & Integration Plug-and-play PCI enumeration ensures rapid system integration. Configurable transceiver technology accommodates legacy RS422/485 installations, high-speed PECL systems, and low-power LVDS designs. Supports D32 DMA transfers and chaining for efficient host-independent data movement.