For some time now, laptops have become powerful enough for even ambitious hard disk recording thanks to high computing power and powerful hard drives. Up to now, a powerful interface was missing though. USB is neither offering the necessary bandwidth, nor the desired compatibility. Available PCMCIA solutions at the moment are nearly always designed as 16 bit PC Card and therefore only make use of the ISA bus.

For the Hammerfall DSP System RME 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 MacOS, 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 (closed LAN to IEEE 1394.) The data transfer does not use Firewire protocol, but our own proprietary bus protocol. The supplied cable is 4.5 m (15 ft.) long, a cable length up to 10 m (33 ft.) has been successfully tested. The CardBus card does not provide power to the attached I/O-box. Therefore a hi-tech switching power supply is included.

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.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

• 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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