The most powerful adapter in the ARTIC family is the ARTIC960Hx PCI Adapter. This full-length, intelligent adapter is designed for use in 32-bit PCI bus host systems. Its main engine is the Intel 80960HD microprocessor, which provides the performance to offload the most demanding communications and other real-time applications. The ARTIC960Hx PCI Adapter has a PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC) connector, which supports a 32-bit PCI interface for PMC attachment. A PMC provides high-function, application-specific interfaces that expand and customize the capability of this base adapter.The ARTIC960Hx PCI Adapter has the bandwidth to process multiple communication connections and support simultaneous synchronous or asynchronous full-duplex lines, each at data rates up to 2.048Mbps. This adapter's open-architecture along with downloadable protocol stacks and the appropriate PMC, make it ideal for use in telephony applications, device interface and control, and wide area networking applications. It provides a common platform that is ideal for OEM customers looking to embed these capabilities into their products and solutions as well as for third-party developers who need a common platform to leverage their development. End-users can apply this technology when combined with an IBM solution or using OEM or third-party PMCs, device drivers, and applications. The ARTIC960Hx is designed using an IBM-developed, high-performance, asynchronous, isolated, PCI bridge. This bridge enables high-speed DMA block transfer for high throughput between the adapter and the host system.