Innovative Music Australia: RME Cardbus Interface

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Overview:

In the year 2001 RME started a revolution in mobile audio recording: the HDSP System, consisting of a CardBus card (or PCI card / PCI Express card plus an external I/O-box has been the world's first audio system, operating at both desktop and laptop. And the world's first professional multitrack system for notebooks at all.

In the year 2005 we are proud to look back and conclude: the HDSP system has become a true 'industry standard'. Thanks to continuing firmware and driver updates it stayed a cutting-edge product, still offers un-beaten performance, and still enjoys great popularity among the users.

PCI and CardBus have not been surpassed by any other interface technology for professional audio - no other solution can keep up regarding low Latency and lowest CPU load. Also in regards of competition RME's HDSP system is still unsurpassed after 4 years. No other manufacturer offers such a flexible, robust, performing and expandable solution.

The Cardbus Interface:

For the Hammerfall DSP I/O-boxes Digiface, Multiface and RPM, RME have developed a world-exclusive PCMCIA type II card in Zero wait state CardBus Busmaster technology. With up to 130 MB/s transfer rate in both directions the same basic performance is provided on a notebook as a PCI card would offer on a desktop computer. Additionally the card offers highest compatibility by being 100% Plug & Play compatible under Windows and Mac OS, and being able to share interrupts. The card itself will only use one interrupt (IRQ) for all functions (audio/MIDI.)

The connection between CardBus card and I/O-box is established using ordinary FireWire cable (6-pin IEEE 1394a). The data transfer does not use FireWire protocol, but a proprietary bus protocol by RME. The supplied cable has a length of 4.5 m (15 ft.), a cable length up to 10 m (33 ft.) has been tested successfully. The CardBus card does not provide power to the attached I/O-box. Therefore a compact and light-weight hi-tech switch-mode power supply is included.

The CardBus shown above ships since mid 2005. In case two HDSP CardBus shall be used in one laptop, the lower card must be a flat version, which is also available. It uses a special cable (15-pin Closed LAN to 6-pin IEEE1394a, included), with a length of 4.5 meters (15 ft.). The flat card is 100% identical and compatible, but does not offer the Secure BIOS technology of the upper version.

Tech Specs:

PCMCIA type II, 32 bit CardBus card

Zero wait state PCI Busmaster interface (130 MB/s transfer rate in both directions)

Secure BIOS Technology: card stays fully functional even when the flash process fails

Output: IEEE 1394 connector, RPM bus protocol

Package contents: PCMCIA type II card, cable 4.5 meter (15 ft) (IEEE 1394),
switch-mode power supply 100 V-240 V/12 V - 1.25 A, car cable, battery cable

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