"The only real application I see for something like this is for a company that develops PCI-Express cards and needs a way to move the cards easily between computers. And they only use laptops with Express card slots."
Applications are limited, but there are other real ones. The lab I work in uses an older Magma PCI-to-PC Card breakout box to house a fiber-optic PCI card used to control twin 250,000fps Photron cameras in a stereoscopic setup. The Magma box essentially lives with the camera in one building and we bring in laptops to run a test, dump the data, and then take our laptops with us to process the data wherever we need to be later in the day. We could use external storage, but when you can easily collect 10-20GB of data in a typical morning, its just easier to have it on the laptop organized in the acquisition software database and take it with you. We also have used it outdoors in the field, and its been reliable to transport a laptop and the Magma in one large Pelican case than dealing with the external KBM cabling of a desktop PC. I agree that it could be cheaper, but when you are using it to control something like our cameras that cost $70,000 a piece, its a drop in the bucket. I don't think this thing is really intended at the home market, but rather Universities and R&D companies who have all sorts of exotic equipment controlled by specialty PCI boards (take a look through a National Instruments catalog if you don't know what I'm talking about), where the cost of the Magma box is nothing if it allows them to take their equipment on the road in a more convenient package.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rory @ May 5th 2007 11:54AM
"The only real application I see for something like this is for a company that develops PCI-Express cards and needs a way to move the cards easily between computers. And they only use laptops with Express card slots."
Applications are limited, but there are other real ones. The lab I work in uses an older Magma PCI-to-PC Card breakout box to house a fiber-optic PCI card used to control twin 250,000fps Photron cameras in a stereoscopic setup. The Magma box essentially lives with the camera in one building and we bring in laptops to run a test, dump the data, and then take our laptops with us to process the data wherever we need to be later in the day. We could use external storage, but when you can easily collect 10-20GB of data in a typical morning, its just easier to have it on the laptop organized in the acquisition software database and take it with you. We also have used it outdoors in the field, and its been reliable to transport a laptop and the Magma in one large Pelican case than dealing with the external KBM cabling of a desktop PC. I agree that it could be cheaper, but when you are using it to control something like our cameras that cost $70,000 a piece, its a drop in the bucket. I don't think this thing is really intended at the home market, but rather Universities and R&D companies who have all sorts of exotic equipment controlled by specialty PCI boards (take a look through a National Instruments catalog if you don't know what I'm talking about), where the cost of the Magma box is nothing if it allows them to take their equipment on the road in a more convenient package.