1 Your PC’s Performance Features
Installing Fast Peripherals on the PCI Bus
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Your PC’s Accessory
Board Slots
Three of your PC’s accessory board slots are for full-length, 32-bit PCI
accessory boards. Two of these are occupied by the video adapter and
LAN interface board. Two more slots are for full-length, 16-bit ISA
accessory boards. The sixth slot is a combination slot and can be used
for either a full-length, 16-bit ISA accessory board or a full-length, 32-
bit PCI accessory board.
Which Peripherals Can
Benefit From The PCI
Bus?
Any peripheral that needs to exchange large quantities of data with
your PC’s processor or memory will benefit from the bandwidth (data
handling capability) of the PCI bus. For this reason your PC’s
integrated SCSI controller, integrated IDE controller, video adapter
and networking board are all installed on the PCI bus.
If you need to install an accessory board in your PC, HP recommends
that the PCI bus is your first choice for expansion.
PCI Plug and Play
The PCI standard supports Plug and Play, which means easy
configuration for installed peripherals. If you install an extra PCI
accessory board, the board will be configured for use automatically.
Low Power Migration
The PCI bus in your PC supports PCI accessory boards that use two
different power sources, 3.3 volts or 5 volts. Most currently available
PCI accessory boards use the 5 volt power source. Accessory boards
that use the 3.3 volt power source use less power, which helps to
reduce the overall power consumption of your PC. As more 3.3 volt PCI
accessory boards become available, you will be able to install these
inside your PC immediately.
PCI Clock Speeds
The PCI bus in your PC uses a clock that is half the speed of your
processor’s local bus. This means that your PCI bus uses a clock of either
30 MHz or 33 MHz, depending on your processor.
At 30 MHz, the PCI bus can transfer up to 120 MB of data each second,
while at 33 MHz, the transfer rate is 132 MB each second.
