The 6 models of the M4i.44xx-x8 Express series are designed for the fast and high quality data acquisition. Each of the input channels has its own A/D converter and its own programmable input amplifier. This allows the recording of signals simultaneously on all channels with 14 bit or 16 bit resolution without any phase delay between them. The card uses only one A/D converter even when running with 500 MS/s, guaranteeing best signal quality without any interleaving technology. The extremely large on-board memory allows long time recording even with the highest sampling rates.

In contrast to the parallel PCI buses PCI Express slots contain serial point to point connections. Each connection pair (lane) is able to reach a burst connection speed of 250 MB/s (Gen 1) or 500 MB/s (Gen2). The fast streaming cards from Spectrum with PCI Express x8 Gen 2 interface need a physical connector of x8 or x16. The card interface can adopt to any electrical PCI Express interface, be it x1, x4, x8 or x16 with any PCI Express generation. One advantage of the PCI Express technology is the direct connection of each slot allowing a full transfer bandwidth for each single card. PCI Express is the bus standard for PC based systems for the next couple of years. Today's State-of-the-art motherboards normally have a couple of PCI Express slots but only one or two PCI-X slots. Server and industrial motherboards as well as high performance cosumer motherboards offer normally PCI Express x8 slots.