Patent ID: 7149093

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a legacy peripheral component interconnect extensions for instrumentation (PXI) card, wherein the legacy PXI card is designed for insertion into a legacy PXI chassis, and wherein the legacy PXI comprises: a legacy PXI front face, operable to provide an interface between the legacy PXI card and an external component; and a legacy PXI back face, operable to provide an interface between the legacy PXI and a backplane of the legacy PXI chassis, wherein the legacy PXI back face is substantially parallel to the legacy PXI front face; and an extender card, wherein the extender card comprises: an extender card front face, operable to couple to the legacy PXI back face to provide an interface between the extender card and the legacy PXI card; and an extender card back face, operable to provide an interface between the extender card and a PXI Express backplane of a first chassis, wherein the extender card front face and the extender card back face are substantially parallel, and wherein the first chassis is larger than the legacy PXI chassis; wherein the extender card is operable to: extend the legacy PXI card on two sides or less of the legacy PXI card to fit and operate in the first chassis; and convert between a legacy PXI communication protocol and a PXI Express communication protocol; wherein, when coupled, the extender card and the legacy PXI card are substantially coplanar and form a combined card which is insertable into the first chassis.