Expansion Unit

Expansion System: An expansion unit is used to expand the number of PCI bus slots of a PC. It is also used to accomodate add-on boards where the power requirements or usage exceeds the power supply capacity of the host computer. Expansion unit can be connected to either laptop or stand alone desktop/ workstation/server computers. It allows to communicate by transmitting signals directly between expansion chassis and host computer.

Connecting expansion system to host computer is achieved by using expansion host card or adapter. A host card can be a FiberOptic connection, Ethernet, PCI Express(x1,x4,18 or x16), PCI, USB and etc.

Practically any type of PCI, PCI-X and PCI Express cards can be used in the expansion chassis ranging from audio processing, video capture, graphics, test & measurement, data-acquisition, SCSI, FibreChannel, SATA, telephony, audiocode and more.