Products — PCI Bus Extender and Interface Board
9323A

This board is a multi-purpose passive 5-volt, 32-bit Conventional PCI 2.0 through 2.3 card designed to interface a motherboard to test equipment (such as logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and current meters) for debugging, product validation, and reverse engineering. It can be used by itself as a cost-effective PCI interface or extender ("riser") card, or accept a Device Under Test in the upper slot, supporting the isolation of the most common PCI signals from the motherboard with disconnect switches supporting new peripheral design development. Four 16V8 devices can be installed for special prototyping or debug support such as "Using Delayed FRAME# to Differentiate Address Phases."

The Product Manual contains details on the product features and usage and is available for your convenience.

Note: This is a legacy device: Conventional PCI version 2.2, 5-volt only card, for performing analysis in older systems. Unmodified, it is not keyed for a 3.3-volt-only conventional PCI motherboard slot, and it is not PCI Express (which is a serial bus, not parallel like this device). It accepts universal (mixed 5V/3.3V) cards in the upper slot and does supply 3.3V to the upper connector when the fuse F2 is installed.

Product images are available below.

Summary of Product Features

•   High-quality 4-layer board with power and ground planes on inner layers, plus electrolytic and tantalum decoupling capacitors to reduce noise and ground bounce over a wide range of frequencies.
•   Best quality parts including very reliable Burndy connector and AMP DIP switches.
  
•   All PCI signals are routed through the card, with most bus control signals able to be disconnected with the installed individual signal isolation switches. Most (but not all) bus signals are routed to header pins. Some unused header pins are provided for user customization.
•   Signals are clearly labeled on the silkscreen on both sides of the board.
  
•   Reversible build – purchase your preferred stuffing option with components installed on the A-side or the B-side so that test points are oriented "outward" regardless of physical constraints of motherboard component orientation or arrangement of other installed peripheral cards or riser cards.
•   Not specific to a particular logic analyzer. The user can probe any desired subset of signals by connecting the header pins to any analyzer's "flying leads" or an oscilloscope probe.
•   Weak (10K) pullups are provided for the PCI control signals FRAME#, STOP#, IRDY#, TRDY#, DEVSEL#, RESET#, and CLK, so that they are deasserted on the extender card's top receptacle if the signals are disconnected from the bus with the switches. The peripheral under test can be hard reset by opening the switch and grounding its RESET# input (accessible at the RESET# switch or test pin).
•   Test pin dimension and spacing accommodate all standard logic analyzer probes: standard 0.1 inch spacing, 0.025 inch square test pins.
•   Plenty of ground points are provided for grounding logic analyzer pods and scope probes.
•   Four 20-pin DIP layouts connected to +5V (pin 20) and GND (pin 10) are provided for prototyping such as with 16V8 GALs or other programmable logic.
•   Fuses are installable and removable on the 3V and 5V supply rails for isolation testing, current consumption measurements, and to help prevent accidental shorts from causing board or component damage. Power plane test points are provided for easy access to drive the peripheral under test with external power supplies (with the fuse removed).
•   Weak (10K) pulldown is provided on the IDSEL signal so it is deasserted when disconnected with the isolation switch.
• Components on the board are not sensitive to ESD. (Optional DFRAME# modification excepted).
•   Manufactured in the U.S.A.
  

A Note About Component Builds

This board is a reversible design. Inspect your system configuration to determine which side of the board you want the isolation switches, headers,and test points mounted in relation to the backplate (card bracket) and key, especially if you are working with a system using a riser card or limited space between boards. Here is a useful reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PCI_Keying.png#file

I am currently investigating modification options of this card for use in a 3.3V motherboard environment.
UPDATED: It works. I have modified Universal cards available in both builds!
Photos coming soon.

Product Images — A-side component build (click for larger images)

The A-side component bulid provides isolation switches and test points mounted on the surface of the board that faces you when the backplate (mounting bracket) is on your right, and the key notch is on your left. Click for larger images

Product Images — B-side component build (click for larger images)

The B-side component bulid provides isolation switches and test points mounted on the surface of the board that faces you when the backplate (mounting bracket) is on your left, and the key notch is on your right. Click for larger images

The following is the B-side and A-side view of a B-side-component-build board, modified with the DFRAME# circuit and wired up to three 16555A pods of an HP 16500C logic analyzer. It looks messy but only takes about 10 minutes to wire up. The yellow wires are the DFRAME# modification. The pink wires are to bring the REQ# and GNT# signals out to test points. Click for larger images

Here is one more example of a (different) 5V-only PCI board with a B-side component build:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:32-bit_PCI_card.JPG

Please verify that you are ordering the component build orientation that meets your needs.

For more information, refer to the Conventional PCI pinout specification on Wikipedia, or the actual PCI specification. The Wikipedia article visually demonstrates the differences between the 5V and 3.3V keyings, and the pinout is clearly and conveniently referenced looking down into the motherboard connector.

Pricing

Order inquiries may be sent by email.

$275 for one unit,
$245 each for two units.
Additional quantity pricing is available upon request.
Shipping charges, Fuse F2, the mounting bracket, and the VGA connector for attaching the mounting bracket are not included.

Customers will receive schematics, layouts, and a recommended logic analyzer wiring configuration with their purchase.

For an additional $50, I will modify your board to generate a delayed FRAME# output which can be used to differentiate Address from Data phases in PCI transactions. State listings can then be set up to exclude all wait states, or further qualified to store only particular transaction types. This is excellent for timing software operations or hardware events, for determining burst lengths or merge behavior, and for comparing performance of time-critical software implementations for device drivers for PCI devices.
Learn more.

Competing products and comparison

This product is not the only option for performing PCI bus analysis. The following chart provides some detail about the differences between the 9323A board and some competing products: