What Is “PCI”?
PCI = Peripheral Component Interconnect
A high-performance bus interface
- Wide (32 or 64 bits wide)
- Fast (33 or 66 MHz)
Proposed (mandated?) by Intel Corp.
- Alternative to Versa Bus (VL Bus)
- Solves many design issues surrounding high-speed system design (ringing, termination, etc.)
Adopted by nearly every major computer company and now forms the backbone in most new imbedded applications
Comes in different “flavors”
- 33 MHz or 66 MHz (33 MHz is most common today)
- 32-bit or 64-bit (32-bit is most common today)
- 5V or 3V (5V is most common today)