IBM PS2 MCA Model 55 SX, slot riser card

A Riser Card is a

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich str ...

that gives a computer

motherboard A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expand ...

the option for additional expansion cards to be added to the computer.

Usage

Risers is usually connected to the mainboard's slot through an edge connector, though some, such as NLX and Next Unit of Computing Extreme, have the edge connector on the mainboard instead and have the mainboard plug into Risers. In general, the main purpose is to change the orientation of the expansion cards such that they fit a limited space within casing.

Riser Cables

Riser Cables is an evolution of Riser Cards that utilized improved specifications (specifically the use of

PCI Express PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common m ...

) and better materials, which allows further distances of data transmission and orientation flexibility than traditional riser cards. These cables used a Riser Card PCB and an edge connector on each side of the cable, with a

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

alloy surrounded by a plastic insulator that allows for the further data transmission distances. These cables are now commonly used in modern household gaming PC's to allow for different positioning of

Cards and GPU cards in a Computer case. This allows for customization and the addition of additional parts to suit the creator or builders needs. They can additionally be installed into vertical brackets to function similarly to a Riser Card, but with further flexibility. They are also used in small-form-factor PC's to allow for a GPU to be positioned behind a computer motherboard.

Specifications

There are only a few specified standards in regards to Riser designs. The most current one used in an edge connector for data transfer is the

standard. This allows for maximum data transfer speeds of 32 GB/s when using PCIe 4.0, along with 75W of power to be delivered from the host device. Other specifications used for these cards include ExpressCard and

PCI-X PCI-X, short for Peripheral Component Interconnect eXtended, is a computer bus and expansion card standard that enhances the 32-bit PCI local bus for higher bandwidth demanded mostly by servers and workstations. It uses a modified protoc ...

Applications

Riser Cards have applications in both industrial and

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

spaces.

Industrial

In servers, height for expansion cards is limited by rack units. This is the size limits that Riser Cards must follow when being designed. A

unit Unit may refer to: Arts and entertainment * UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' * Unit of action, a discrete piece of action (or beat) in a theatrical presentation Music * ''Unit'' (a ...

(U) is the traditional definition or standard for server height and how servers are made. One server

is equal to 1.75", while 2U servers are equal to a height of 3.5". Traditionally, a 1U Riser Card can fit 1 PCI slot. While a 2U card can fit 2 or 3 PCI slots. This all depends on the size of the expansion card as some are thicker than 1 PCI slot and will cover up any additional slots.

Consumer

In small-form-factor (SFF) computers built by computer enthusiasts, PCI-E Riser Cards are used in a similar sense to a server application. They are used to sandwich a graphics card closer to a computer

and are made to the same heights as server units for most applications. Depending on the case, the more flexible

Riser Cable is used instead, which can even allow the GPU to be placed "behind" the mainboard, allowing space-efficent orientation without limiting the GPU's airflow.

References

External links

Riser Card Installation
Computer buses Motherboard Printed circuit board manufacturing {{tech-stub