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 engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a L ...

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 Next Unit of Computing (NUC) is a line of small-form-factor barebone computer kits designed by Intel. It was previewed in 2012 and launched in early 2013. The NUC has developed over ten generations, spanning from Sandy Bridge-based Celeron CPU ...

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 ...

) 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 pinkis ...

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 A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

cards in a

Computer case A computer case, also known as a computer chassis, is the enclosure that contains most of the hardware of a personal computer. The components housed inside the case (such as the CPU, motherboard, memory, mass storage devices, power supply unit a ...

. 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 protocol t ...

Applications

Riser Cards have applications in both

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

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. T ...

spaces.

Industrial

In servers, height for

expansion card In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus slo ...

s is limited by

rack unit A rack unit (abbreviated U or RU) is a unit of measure defined as . It is most frequently used as a measurement of the overall height of 19-inch and 23-inch rack frames, as well as the height of equipment that mounts in these frames, whereby th ...

s. 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'' (alb ...

(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 PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Pro ...

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

slot and will cover up any additional slots.

Consumer

In small-form-factor (SFF) computers built by computer enthusiasts,

PCI-E PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial communication, serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older Conventional PCI, PCI, PCI-X and A ...

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