National Instruments PCI-8330

The National Instruments PCI-8330 is an MXI-3 Interface Board designed to enhance connectivity within PCI-based systems. This advanced board facilitates the connection of two electrically isolated buses via copper or fiber-optic cables, supporting seamless data rates of up to 1.5 Gbit/s. With the capability to control PCI devices across as many as 255 buses—contingent upon BIOS support—the PCI-8330 allows users to configure flexible network topologies, including daisy-chain and star configurations, while maintaining bus-to-bus separation of up to 10 meters with copper cables and 200 meters with fiber-optic cables.

As a PCI-PCI connector, the PCI-8330 presents all connected devices as local within a single PCI framework, negating the need for adjustments to device drivers for interoperability. The MXI-3 scheme actively retimes signals between buses, ensuring adherence to the precise timing and performance standards expected of PCI systems. The board is equipped with a setup program compatible with Microsoft Windows operating systems, although users on alternative platforms may bypass this aspect. Additionally, in setups utilizing fiber optics, a series of high-speed photodetectors convert light signals back to digital data, which is then translated to the original 20-bit wide data by a serial-to-parallel converter.

The PCI-8330 boasts peak performance capabilities of 132 Mbytes/s and sustained performance of 84 Mbytes/s. Designed for reliability, it features a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 1,130,000 hours. With dimensions of 4.2 inches by 6.9 inches and a weight of 0.33 pounds, this compact board operates within a temperature range of 0 to 50 °C and can be stored between –20 to 70 °C. Humidity tolerance is maintained at 10 to 90% during operation and 5 to 95% for storage conditions. Although National Instruments has announced the PCI-8330 as obsolete, it remains available for purchase and repair through Apex Waves.