The following description lists companies (there are others, I am sure) that manufacture PCI bus A/D and in some cases digital I/O boards.  PC bus boards usually are furnished with software and drivers that allow them to be used directly and from within custom Visual Basic, C, C++, or Delphi programs.  Most may be used with ActiveX controls such as Measurement Studio™. 

PCI bus boards are "Plug and Play."  That is, you open the PC, insert the board, and boot the computer.  Windows 95/98 and Windows 2000 detect the board, do some initial configuration automatically, and request that the accompanying software be installed to enable use of the board.  Well, that is how it is supposed to work.  Sometimes (usually) it does.  PCI bus boards are a 32-bit bus that has substantially higher performance than the older 16-bit ISA bus.  PCI boards should be considered for new designs.

You may notice that the following list largely duplicates that for ISA bus products.  PCI is a natural growth market for manufacturers who started with ISA bus products, so this duplication is to be expected.  However, there are a few entries that have only PCI offerings -- they go into the business at a later date than some, or they simply saw limited ISA bus viability and have limited their offering to PCI bus products.

National Instruments is well known for their extensive line of software products for data acquisition.  However, they also have a variety of hardware.

Computer Boards manufactures a series of A/D, D/A, and I/O products.  These often are plug/software compatible with similarly numbered products from other popular manufacturers, notably Keithley.  

Keithley is one of the original leaders in manufacturing PC bus data acquisition products.

Data Translation has a series of PCI bus boards and accompanying software drivers.  

CyberResearch is not so much a manufacturer as a reseller.  However, they have a wide variety of industrial computers, displays, hardware and software that should be of interest.  The variety of their offerings makes "one-stop shopping" easy.

Industrial Computer Source also is a reseller of industrial grade hardware and software for data acquisition and control.

Advantech is yet another source for industrial automation products, including those for data acquisition and control.

Acquisition Control Communications Engineering / Systems (ACCES) sells a variety of hardware for data acquisition and control.

DATEL makes both PC based and non-PC based data acquisition hardware.  These products tend to be a little more "high-end" than some other manufacturers.

Intelligent Instrumentation was formerly part of Burr-Brown.  Spun off to concentrate on data acquisition and control hardware and software II has a variety of PCI and non-PCI hardware.

IOTech has a single PCI bus product, at this writing.  It is a high-performance (16-bit, 8-channel, 200 KHz sample rate) A/D board.

Analogic is a long time supplier of higher-end PC bus A/D board-level products. 

Omega Engineering has a huge number of products for industrial automation.  They have a number of D/A, A/D and digital I/O cards for PCs.  PLCs also are available from Omega.

SuperLogics ( previously Quatech) has several low to medium-cost PCI bus data acquisition boards.

United Electronic Industries has a significant line of boards, including ones that support simultaneous sampling (something that is not always offered and that can be of real benefit in some applications).

Innovative Integration sells a very interesting PCI based data acquisition board that uses an embedded DSP for high-speed data acquisition.  It is called "Chico", and may provide a comparatively low-cost solution for some applications.

CONTEC Microelectronics sells PCI bus D/A boards, and an extensive line of industrial automation equipment.  The specialize in industrial operator interface displays.

PC-based data acquisition systems are available from VMIC.

CircuitSpecialists has a full line of NuDAQ boards for ISA and PCI bus.  VB software is available.

Eagle Technologies will be of special interest for users in South Africa or other countries where purchase from SA are desired.  Located in Cape Town, they manufacture several 8/14/16/24 bit A/D boards and a line of digital I/O boards.

ines International Web Service sell an extensive line of PCI bus and PC CARD data acquisition cards.

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Last modified: 11/25/09