PCI interface using uC

6 sensors.
20kHz.
16 bit data/sample (my assumption, since you refuse to talk about bandwidth).

That comes to 2Mbit/s actual data volume.

But the above is assuming 20kHz sampling of a 6-channel 16-bit ADC. If you are using a counter card, I would assume that you actually produce just a fraction of that bandwidth. But let's say we are talking about 6 ADC channels that has to sample a 20kHz sinus signal, so you instead have 44.100kHz sampling rate.

Now we get a bandwith of 4.2Mbit.

Ethernet 10baseTX are just on the limit for this bandwidth.
Ethernet 100baseTX can do it while asleep.
High-speed USB runs at 480Mbit/s.
The original FireWire standard has 400Mbit/s.

So, why do you think that you need the 1Gbps transfer rate of the PCI bus, despite the fact that the PCI solution is way more expensive to develop, produce and to own?

But back to your original problem - you talked about a counter card, and not about an ADC with 20kHz imput frequency or sample frequency. A counter that ticks at 20kHz don't really need much bandwidth. In the extreme case, you have 6 digital signals ticking at 20kHz for a bandwidth of 120kbit/s which means that you can probably handle your counters with a UART capable of 1Mbaud operation. Hardly any cost at all for a micrpprocessor with six counter/timer modules and a UART with driver chip and a crystal and some connectors...

6 sensors.
20kHz.
16 bit data/sample (my assumption, since you refuse to talk about bandwidth).

That comes to 2Mbit/s actual data volume.

But the above is assuming 20kHz sampling of a 6-channel 16-bit ADC. If you are using a counter card, I would assume that you actually produce just a fraction of that bandwidth. But let's say we are talking about 6 ADC channels that has to sample a 20kHz sinus signal, so you instead have 44.100kHz sampling rate.

Now we get a bandwith of 4.2Mbit.

Ethernet 10baseTX are just on the limit for this bandwidth.
Ethernet 100baseTX can do it while asleep.
High-speed USB runs at 480Mbit/s.
The original FireWire standard has 400Mbit/s.

So, why do you think that you need the 1Gbps transfer rate of the PCI bus, despite the fact that the PCI solution is way more expensive to develop, produce and to own?

But back to your original problem - you talked about a counter card, and not about an ADC with 20kHz imput frequency or sample frequency. A counter that ticks at 20kHz don't really need much bandwidth. In the extreme case, you have 6 digital signals ticking at 20kHz for a bandwidth of 120kbit/s which means that you can probably handle your counters with a UART capable of 1Mbaud operation. Hardly any cost at all for a micrpprocessor with six counter/timer modules and a UART with driver chip and a crystal and some connectors...

www.techonline.com/.../211800334

Or look at the very many other such PCI resources available...