Xpanse PN‚Ñ¢ chassis systems from Second Wave convert PCI to NuBus to allow Macintosh users with NuBus cards the opportunity to transition to the PCI-based Power Macintosh & Performa 5400/6400 without losing the investment in add-on NuBus option cards.
The Xpanse N‚Ñ¢ series allow users to expand the NuBus option card capability of NuBus-based Macintosh models.
Each Xpanse PN chassis includes the Second Wave PCI-to-NuBus interface card that occupies one PCI slot in the xx00 series Power Macintosh & Performa 5400 & 6400, a 68-conductor interface cable, and the external chassis. The Xpanse PN800 comes in both a desk top and rackmount model.
The Xpanse N chassis connects to a NuBus-based Macintosh via the Second Wave NuBus-to-NuBus interface card and interface cable.
In the IIsi, Centris/Quadra 610, Quadra 660Av and Power Macintosh 6100, the 7-inch NuBus interface card plugs into Apple’s NuBus adaptor. In NuBus models, the interface card plugs into an internal NuBus slot.
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Local Bus is now integrated into the Macintosh. PCI is a synchronous bus architecture with operation up to 33MHz, yielding band-widths between 3 and 4 times that of NuBus and has support for 64-bit addressing.
Applications for Xpanse chassis systems include multiple high resolution monitors for X-ray medical imaging, sound recording studios and video editing suites, multi-line bulletin boards requiring multiple quad serial cards & ISDN, advanced NuBus processor option boards using CISC and RISC technologies providing immense parallel computing architectures and many more applications in the pre-press and colour imaging markets.
Compatibility is excellent, particularly if the NuBus card drivers implement the full 16 slots and 32-bit addressing.
