RME HDSP PCI Card

For some time now, laptops have become powerful enough for even ambitious hard disk recording thanks to high computing power and powerful hard drives. Up to now, a powerful interface was missing though. USB is neither offering the necessary bandwidth, nor the desired compatibility. Available PCMCIA solutions at the moment are nearly always designed as 16 bit PC Card and therefore only make use of the ISA bus.

For the Hammerfall DSP I/O-boxes Digiface, Multiface and RPM, RME have developed a world-exclusive PCMCIA type II card in Zero wait state CardBus Busmaster technology. With up to 130 MB/s transfer rate in both directions the same basic performance is provided on a notebook as a PCI card would offer on a desktop computer. Additionally the card offers highest compatibility by being 100% Plug & Play compatible under Windows and Mac OS, and being able to share interrupts. The card itself will only use one interrupt (IRQ) for all functions (audio/MIDI.)

The connection between CardBus card and I/O box is established using ordinary firewire cable (closed LAN to IEEE 1394.) The data transfer does not use Firewire protocol, but our own proprietary bus protocol. The supplied cable is 4.5 m (15 ft.) long, a cable length up to 10 m (33 ft.) has been successfully tested. The CardBus card does not provide power to the attached I/O-box. Therefore a hi-tech switching power supply is included.

 

Based on the legendary Hammerfall PCI core with its innovative zero CPU load technology, the new PCI core developed for RME's Digiface, Multiface and RPM, is optimized for even higher performance. Thanks to the latest chip technology, internal hi-speed RAM can be used faster and more efficient than external SRAM.

The PCI engine of the Hammerfall DSP System is built on a Zero wait state PCI Busmaster core. With up to 130 MB/s transfer rate in both directions the maximum performance available on the 32 bit PCI bus is used. Additionally the card offers highest compatibility by being 100% Plug & Play compatible under Windows and Mac OS, and being able to share interrupts. The card itself will only use one interrupt (IRQ) for all functions (audio/MIDI.)

The connection between PCI card and I/O box is established using ordinary firewire cable (IEEE 1394, 6-pole.) The data transfer does not use Firewire protocol, but our own proprietary bus protocol. The supplied cable is 4.5 m (15 ft.) long, a cable length up to 10 m (33 ft.) has been successfully tested. The PCI card operates as power supply for the attached I/O-box.

 

HDSP PCI:

Short PCI 2.0 compliant PCI card

Zero wait state PCI Busmaster interface (130 MB/s transfer rate in both directions)

32 bit, 3.3 V compatible

Output: IEEE 1394 connector

Package contents: PCI card, cable 4.5 meter (15 ft) IEEE 1394, internal cable 3-pole

 

HDSP CARDBUS - MOBILE KIT:

PCMCIA type II, 32 bit CardBus card

Zero wait state PCI Busmaster interface (130 MB/s transfer rate in both directions)

Current load: ca. 300 mA

Output: Closed LAN connector

Package contents: PCMCIA type II card, cable 4.5 meter (15 ft) (Closed LAN to IEEE 1394), switching power supply 100 V-240 V/12 V - 1.25 A, card cable, battery cable

Specs:

• Type: Audio Interface
• Theme: Recording and Studio

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