June 28
Digidesign Ships Mac PCI Expansion Chassis
New seven-slot model supports Pro Tools|24, Pro Tools|Mix systems

by David Nagel
Executive Producer

Digidesign has started shipping a new seven-slot chassis for Macintosh Pro Tools digital audio systems. Enabling users to add up to seven supported Digidesign PCI cards for Pro Tools|24 and Pro Tools|Mix, the expansion chassis requires no extra software and works with the blue and white G3 or any G4 running Pro Tools 5.0.1 and Mac OS 8.6 and above.

The rack-mountable chassis lets users add d24, MIX Farm, MIX I/O and DSP Farm cards, as well as SampleCell II Plus cards. It can also be used to put Pro Tools|24 (d24) and Pro Tools|24 MIX (MIX Farm, MIX Core) cards in the same chassis, according to Digidesign.

The seven-slot expansion unit (model DD22-1) includes a seven-slot rack-mount chassis (17" x 6.5" x 18", with a 19" x 7" face plate), host card, backplane controller card and a 4' cable. (It won't work with a 6' cable.) It also includes two studio-quality (26 dB) 42.5 CFM ball bearing cooling fans, plus a power supply fan; switch-selectable 115V/230V power; and four additional power taps for peripheral devices.

Digidesign already has a 13-slot chassis available for Macintosh. The seven-slot version is priced $500 less, at $1,495. For more information, visit Digidesign at http://www.digidesign.com.