This article will discuss the most common PCI devices to date. What is it this, and when you can’t do without it, are the key issues of this material. Although this standard is gradually becoming a thing of the past, it will still be relevant for quite some time. In essence, it can be considered the progenitor of the most modern USB and PCI-Express interfaces, which replaced it.
Tire characteristics
Before we get the answer to the question: “PCI-devices: what is it and where are they used?”, We will consider the characteristics of this bus. This standard began its victorious procession in 1991. The first processor that could fully function with it was 80486. A little later the first Pentiums appeared, which revealed its potential even more. Physically behind this abbreviation is a group of connectors soldered to the motherboard. One of the microcircuits installed on it is responsible for the organization of their work. PCI features are as follows:
- Bit depth - 32/64 bits.
- The operating frequency is 33 or 66 MHz.
- The maximum bandwidth is 500 MB / s (for 64 bit PCI 2.0 version).
- The supply voltage is 3.3 V (for 32 bits) or 5 V (for 64 bits).
Another important nuance that predetermined the future of this standard. Intel made it open. That is, each developer could, if desired, develop any expansion board that would work with this standard without problems.
What devices can be installed
Various devices can be installed in the PCI expansion slot. Among them are:
- Graphics adapter.
- Sound card.
- Tuner.
- Expansion board.
- Network card.
This list goes on and on. In essence, this is a complete analogue of the modern USB bus, but only with a lower data transfer rate. Even the PCI device driver is installed in the same way. Many of the ideas that were implemented in this obsolete tire were further developed in more modern standards. The PCI bus had a very big impact on the further development of computer technology.
Graphics Adapters
To display a graphic image, a PCI video card was used. At one time, this made it possible to significantly increase the performance of computer systems and fully unleash the potential of 80486 processors and the first Pentiums.
But time does not stand still. What became a revolutionary decision then is outdated both morally and physically. Until 1997, such graphics accelerators had no analogues. Therefore, they could be found on every personal computer. And only with the advent of the AGP slot on the motherboard did such adapters give way to new graphics solutions in the lead in performance.
Now a PCI video card is a rarity. It can be found only on very old personal computers. We can say that this is an anachronism. Their performance is sufficient only for solving the most simple tasks - typing, working with a word processor and viewing pictures. But with more complex applications, there will certainly be problems, and in this case it is better not to run them.
Sound board
A sound card is also one of the varieties of a PCI device. What is it is that? The answer to this question is quite simple. Until 1997, there were no integrated sound adapters on motherboards. Therefore, just such devices were used to organize the speaker system. On the one hand, such a board was equipped with a “classic” connector for installation in an expansion slot. Its interface panel was displayed on the back side of the system unit.
For fixing inside the computer, one bolt was used. The sound quality left much to be desired. But still, it was a breakthrough that cannot be underestimated. It was the installation of such devices that allowed any computer to be turned into a real multimedia center before. You could listen to music on such a computer, watch a movie, and play a game.
Tuners
Another important type of device for this bus is the tuner. Such a PCI controller allows you to watch TV shows and listen to the radio. To ensure the operability of such a board, it is necessary to connect an external antenna to it. Otherwise, the quality of the received signal will be far from ideal.
In addition, complete with the tuner was required to go remote control. This made it possible to turn a computer into a real TV. Such a practice was not widely adopted, but there were still cases when such know-how could not be dispensed with. For example, such a decision made it possible for a busy person to keep abreast of events.
Modem
An important attribute of older computers is the modem. With it, you could connect to the Internet earlier. Most of these devices were internal performance, that is, installed in the PCI slot. Now they are successfully replaced by network cards from this segment . Although there are still areas where they have no alternative. One of them is the Client-Bank system, which is often found in accounting. With it, an accountant can monitor the status of company accounts and, if necessary, make payments.
Expansion board
Often in the device manager you can find the following device: “PCI controller simple communications”. Behind this phrase is an expansion board. It allows you to increase the number of ports for connecting peripheral devices or hard drives. That is, such a device is installed in the expansion slot of the motherboard, and from the outside it is equipped with connectors USB, COM or LPT. About 5 years ago, this allowed to significantly increase the number of connected peripherals. Now the number of ports on the motherboard has grown significantly, and the need to install such controllers has simply disappeared.
Summary
This article answered the question: “PCI-devices - what is it and where are they used?”
As you can see, this is a fairly wide range of devices that allows you to turn your computer into a real center for entertainment. At least this statement was true until recently. Now the situation has changed a bit. More and more components are integrated directly into the processor itself or on the motherboard. Therefore, the need for them disappears. You can also find other PCI bridge device, for example, a network card, which allows you to combine computers into a local area network. The only device that does not yet have a worthy alternative is a tuner for receiving TV shows and listening to the radio. But already in this segment compact USB analogs began to appear. In general, the PCI standard is gradually becoming a thing of the past, but it will still be present on the market for a long time.