PCI to USB adapter

[Kimlorentz]

Does anyone know how to convert the PCI-6220 to an external USB?

[ikaiser · Accepted solution]

 Hello Kim!

Do I understand correctly that you are asking for an USB-to-PCIadapter? So to say you want to use your PCI-6220 card by plugging it into a small box that is then connected to the USB port of your computer/laptop? Probably because your computer does not have a PCI slot?

Unfortuantely, a USB to PCI bridge is impossible. It cannot be done universally. PCI cards allow direct access to their internal memory with low-latency timing. USB's latency is orders of magnitudes away from PCI latency:

Also, Direct Memory Access (DMA) originating from the PCI card would not work, as the USB bus is designed to have only one master, which is your PC. summing up, the two buses are too different to allow transparent emulate of the PCI bus via a USB connection.

However, there might still be ways to use your PCI card in your laptop. It might have an PCMCIA or CardBus slow, which actually is PCI. Or an ExpressCard slot, which is PCIe. PCIe-to-PCI bridges exists. Just to limit your expectations: Although they are used on most recent mainboards that have a PCI slot, they do not guarantee full PCI compatibility. Most cards work with such a PCIe-to-PCI bridge, but not all.

[Kimlorentz]

Yes my new Dell computer does not have an PCI only PCIe slot.

Tnx for the help, going to create a small dekstop(mini) computer and connect my two PCI-6220 inside it.