Can you build a PCI board with homemade methods?

PCI and homemade boards

I have recently taken an interesting in making my own General purpose PCI board, for learning sake. I have read a lot of posts here, and have seen that PLX or TI chips can be used. However, can a board be made with homemade methods, or is controlled impedance routing necessary? I have a decent amount of experience with layout, so I'm confident I can do it with a few tries, but this is not possible if I have to get a board made out from a proper vendor.

Thank you.

Re: PCI and homemade boards

I have this article...it shows how to make your own PCB... I don't remember exactly where i got it from... May be i got it from here itself...but sorry i don't remember the post...

PCI and homemade boards

HI,
I was in touch with a guy in Finland who made a early PCI design using a Xilinx 4000 FPGA, he mentioned that the important issue is to try to keep the signals between the PCI connector and the PCI chip/FPGA chip the same lenght, impedance matching is very difficult and almost impossible if you make your own board, but you can keep the lenght of the traces as close as possible and I believe you will be able to run 33MHz wihout any problem,

BR,
/Farhad

PCI and homemade boards

I know how to make my own PCB's, thanks for the link though. Are there any othe rtips that I should follow, other than length matching and keeping them as short as possible? Has anyone actually done this here?

Re: PCI and homemade boards

fahrada does this mean that if we have a project like this we should take it to a pcb factory or a computer based one?should the connections with the card-pc should be gold?

Re: PCI and homemade boards

xjackal said:

fahrada does this mean that if we have a project like this we should take it to a pcb factory or a computer based one?should the connections with the card-pc should be gold?

Click to expand...

I am nost sure I understand what you mean, but you can easily design the board yourself. A simple 2 layer board shuld be fine for prototyping, a 4 layer will have a much better signal/noise handling than the 2 layer board and it is easier to place and route your components, but the price is much higher.

You can design your own double sided board, gold plating is not an important issue, if you want to have a prototype and use is actively for a short time, or long term, and if you insert the board into different PCI slots, and want to be able to move it arround, you should consider gold plating.

There are a lot of companies who make very high quality double sided boards for about 100-150 USD and it would be a good practice to do that instead of developing the board yourself, but again, it is a matter of cost, for hoby, that can be a lot of money.

BR,
/Farhad