PCIe may not be the problem many think...

[Trace]

I've been continuing to do some research into PCIe and from what i've seen there are good options already being made available to companies. UA should probably already have things in house to help them make the transitions. One of those things is a PCIe Bridge Chip as has been brought up before. One company has a Rapid Development Kit available for companies to use to speed up the process of making their PCi products available for PCIe. The company is PLX Technology. i went and read their documentation and this is what they had to day about their product:

\"PLX has a great solution that allows PCI card vendors to leverage their investment by quickly adding a PCI to PCI Express Bridge. The result is a PCI Express card that can be brought to market in parallel to your current PCI product offering.

This allows you to get to market quickly and start selling a product to this fast growing market. You can always replace the bridge solution down the roadif the Return on Investment (ROI) can be justified with an entirely new PCIe design.

Support for Multiple PCI Devices: The PEX 8111 will support up to 4 loads on the PCI bus so it can also support multiple PCI native devices on the card. The PEX 8111 from PLX supports up to a 66MHz, 32-bit PCI bus and converts it to a single x1 lane of PCI Express. It can be used in both a forward mode as described above or in a reverse mode.

Make the Conversion Today!
The PEX 8111 from PLX supports up to a 66MHz 32-Bit PCI bus and converts it to a single x1 lane of PCI Express. It can be used in both a forward mode as described above or in a reverse mode. The PEX 8111 is in production today and samples are in stock at PLX. The PEX 8111 requires only 1 square centimeter of additional board real estate to convert the PCI interface to PCIe. And, the bridge only draws 400 milliwatts of additional power. Test Design Concept Now With Rapid Development Kit The PEX 8111 Forward Mode Rapid Development Kit (PEX 8111RDK-F) provides a quick utility to prove out your design concept. The RDK offers a known, working hardware environment. You can take your existing PCI Card and plug it into this card to prove out the concept. The RDK will be able to plug into a PCI Express socket with your card on the other side of the bridge.\"

So its clear to see that UA has options and i'm sure they could find a Fabricator to produce the new cards or they could just make a breakout box which could serve as a housing for the PCI UAD-1's if they want to.

This makes me feel much more confident about the future of our investment in UAD-1's.

TRACE

 

[The Beatsmith]

lets hope so

and lets hope they tell us what the hell they're doing

and lets hope it doesn't cost a lot more

and lets hope it comes out some time this year

and lets hope there's an upgrade scheme for owners of the old cards

etc

 

[Trace]

lets hope so

and lets hope they tell us what the hell they're doing

and lets hope it doesn't cost a lot more

and lets hope it comes out some time this year

and lets hope there's an upgrade scheme for owners of the old cards

etc

Well I believe they'll let us know something soon. They'll probably wait for the next version release to make a comment.

I don't expect that they'll charge a lot for the new part no matter what it ends up actually being. Its not UA's way to make their products expensive.

I would expect that the PCIe models would be out much later in 2006. It's not something that I think they could turn around much faster. The thing is that real demand for such a product won't be that strong for a while. We only represent a small % of the market and those of us with PCIe machines an even smaller piece of that small group.

If they make a PCIe card I would expect that they'd come up with a reasonable upgrade path. This is UA we're talking about. Even Digidesign offers something to its customers, so why not UA.

I really don't know what to tell people to do in this area. Its a tough call. If someone feels they have to move on to a new PCIe G5 then I guess they should go for it. I just don't see at this point any reason to do so unless you plan on gettting the Quad. Some people make only a limited use of the UA plugs. I on the other hand am a HEAVY UAD user and would not want to go without the plugs. I'm just about 99% UA plugs in my projects. I may use only one or two native plugs in any project. My only desire for getting a Quad is to make it possible to do everything from one machine. Otherwise I have to continue using multiple sound sources. I like things to be simple and ergonomic. So I hope that UA does make the PCIe version and that it won't take too long.

TRACE