What is a universal keyed PCI card?

J

jerryclunsford

Geek Trainee
Hello,
My computer has two PCI-X slots the HP website say that they will use universal keyed PCI cards. What exactly is a universal keyed PCI card?
are all PCI card universal keyed? If not how can I find out if one I have is?
Jerry C Lunsford
 
I would assume that the thing you want to plug into the PCIe slots is a video card.

Keyed means that the card has notches at the bottom of it, so you can't plug it into the slot the wrong way around and/or in the wrong slot altogether a.k.a. fool proofing.

Universally means, that a card that is designed for one type of slot will also support older variations of that same slot. For instance, AGP 8x cards are keyed for 8x AGP busses as well as AGP 4x buses. In other words - backward-compatibility.
 
Actually it is a PCI-X not a PCI-Express. I would like to add a sound card. I guess I'll have toemail manufacturers to find wich cards the make offer a Universal keyed card.
Jerry
 
oh, misread you there.

Anyway, the keying principle applies to any card as well as ram sticks, etc - anything you can plug into a slot on the mobo. But that's just as much as I've heard about keying. Maybe there's something else, though.
 
I found the following on wikipedia.

"Typical PCI cards present either one or two key notches, depending on their signaling voltage. Cards requiring 3.3 volts have a notch 56.21mm from the front of the card (where the external connectors are) while those requiring 5 volts have a notch 104.47mm from the front of the card. So called "Universal cards" have both key notches and can accept both types of signal."

I guess that explains it all. Just have to find specs to match.
Jerry
 
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