/V
voltages required by the latest release of PC Card standards; Provides current limiting and reporting, thermal protection, micro power operation and shutdown
Designers of the fastest notebooks and PCs on the market are using PCI bus for speed and CardBus for performance and flexibility.
Now, with a new device from Texas Instruments, they can combine the two-in-one design easily and affordably.
"CardBus offers the necessary increase in performance to bring new multimedia applications to notebook PCs," said Edward Agis, marketing manager TI's PCI bus products group.
"TI's PCI1130 CardBus controller gives system developers a way to design in CardBus capability affordably. When these designs appear on the shelves, add-in card developers will have a ready market for their CardBus innovations, and PC users will benefit from the new multimedia applications offered by CardBus products."
The new TI PCI1130 PCI-to-CardBus Controller is one of the first CardBus controllers available on the market. It bridges the high-speed PCI system bus used in most new PC designs with the 32-bit CardBus peripheral interface. The device supports two CardBus slots that can accept either 32-bit CardBus cards or 16-bit PC (PCMCIA) Cards. This enables plug-and-play connection to high-speed peripherals used for multimedia communications.
| Operates at 3.3 V | Reduces power consumption in notebook PCs for longer battery life between charges | |
| Hardware and software suspend modes | Enables the system to power off between keystrokes while internal registers are saved | |
| Universal I/O | Can be used in 3.3-V or 5-V designs w/ 5-V tolerance | |
| Universal driver/receivers | Allows for any combination of 3.3- or 5-V PC cards simultaneously | |
| Fully integrated TPS2202I or TPS2202A1 Power distribution switches | Controls power to one or two PC cards; Provides any combination of V/V voltages required by the latest release of PC Card standards; Provides current limiting and reporting, thermal protection, micro power operation and shutdown | |
| Zoom video support | Allows PC Cards to bypass the PCI bus altogether, connecting directly to peripheral control devices for real-time video and audio operation | |
| Burst mode access | Speeds up data transfer and overall system operation | |
| Direct memory access (DMA) | Maintains compatibility with existing support for distributed DMA peripherals that require DMA |
CardBus is a 32-bit extension of the 16-bit PC Card peripheral interface, widely known as the PCMCIA interface for its parent organization, the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. With wider data and faster clock speeds than the PC Card bus, CardBus can also support much higher rates of data throughput -- up to 132 megabytes per second (Mbytes/s) ultimately -- compared with only 20 Mbytes/s for the PC Card 16. This higher data throughput will make it possible to use CardBus cards for high-speed communication with networks, hard disk drives, exter-nal video monitors, cameras and a variety of other devices that have until now been all but unavailable to notebook PCs.
The high-performance Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) system bus speeds up applications on PCs by allowing higher data transfer rates among components. PCI add-in cards configure themselves, simplifying system hardware set-up for end users. The PCI bus requires fewer signals than legacy PC buses, reducing pin counts on ICs and connectors and traces on boards, helping to cut manufacturing costs.
Major PC manufacturers are designing the PCI1130 into their next-generation notebook computer designs to be announced in 1996. System software support for the '1130 is provided by the industry's leading card and socket services vendors, including Systemsoft, Phoenix, Award and AMI. The '1130 has also been tested and verified as compatible with CardBus cards from leading vendors.
"We developed this product based on extensive research into the system requirements of major PC manufacturers," said Agis. "According to what these customers have told us, the PCI1130 has the right features for system design in the emerging CardBus market."
TI's PCI1130 PCI-to-CardBus Controller is sampling now to qualified customers, with volume production planned for 1Q96.
PCI1130 PCI-to-CardBus Controller : 208-pin TQFP - $14.39
Planned pricing in U.S. dollars in 150K quantities.
November 1995, vol. 12, no. 8
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