Pictures below of the P2 Card Reader (single slot) mounted externally at the rear of the Macpro 3Ghz

The set-up In Brief, a PCIe to PCI adapter card is used to connect an Amtron Cardbus (P2) Card Reader, power is supplied from an extended Molex cable from one of the optical drive bays, The reader "mount plate" is from a windows HDD.
PC card recognition "Driver, Kext" installed into Leopard is the Key, as the standard Leopard OS does not provide access to this P2 card reader.

The required components can be sourced by yourself, "P2 Amtron reader

http://www.amtron.com/reader/p2card_reader.htm

with the longer 25" PCI cable set" has been tested, a "PCIe to PCI adapter" , you will need to find or make a 4 pin Molex male to 4 pin Molex female about 20inches long, this cable is needed to power the Adapter.

Hardware Components required for instalation of Amtron P2 Reader in Intel Macpro

Firstly remove the side cover of the Macpro, have this instalation performed by a technician if your unsure of your abilities to achieve a sucessfull component install.

 

Remove PCIe slot covers

Remove the supplied Amtron Mount plate and discard , Couple Adapter card to Amtron card, fold IDE cables as shown and pass thru third slot from bottom.

mount PCIe to PCI Adapter into PCIe slot Two

we are investigating a mount strap to secure two two cards.

Remove HDD one and HDD two.

Very carefully pass extension power cable thru cable space at the front lower corner of the optical bay shown, it will be necessary to remover the power cables from the Molex "Moulded connector Plug" to allow easy inserting of cables thru to optical bay, and connect to the "spare" optical Molex power plug.

Important- make sure the cables are not restricting the re insertion of HDD one or two and are clear of the logic board and fan assembly and all other components.

 

Amtron Reader mounted at the rear on top of the Macpro . we recommend the Purchase of the Longer IDE Cable set from Amtron when ordering the P2 reader.

 

 Finally , we have sourced and utilized a generic HDD mount plate form an old PC and used four rivets to secure it to the top plate of the Amtron reader, an old mouse pad has been used as "spacing"  underneath and with the two prongs secure the reader in place.

Install the Intel Mac Panasonic P2 Cardbus driver, (Version 1.33) available from the Panasonic P2 download site that is for the Macpro to recognize the Panasonic P2 Card..

https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/cs/csregistp2m/ep2main/pcdriver_e.htm

Update----- Panasonic have posted an updated P2 driver to V1.50 (2-6-09) it states.

• 2009.6.9.
  Improved stability when copying P2 files on a MacBookPro with internal memory exceeding 2GB.
• 2009.5.20.
  Supports P2 Card E series. You must install the latest version of the P2 Driver software in your Mac.

https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/desk/e/download.htm#p2macdriver

Tests with this latest P2 driver in the Intel Macpro OS10.5.6 have dissabled the Amtron card Reader, so it's suggested to remain with the V1.33 driver.

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Below is another external card reader that can be set-up but as per my tests have shown, it has very poor P2 file transfer performance into the Macpro.

It is sold in france by "Virtuavia"

http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-express-to-pci-expansion-box-p29809.html

and in the US by suppliers as

http://www.cooldrives.com/1popcto4xpci.html

It's cable connected to the Intel Macpro via a PCIe controller card. the supplied power supply of this case can only support one card, it has not ample voltage to get all PCI slots to full power required. so there is a ATX PS modification that can be performed to make all four slots usable, by supplying more voltage to all the PCI slots..

I don't recommend this solution as it's expensive troublesome and does not achieve a useable file transfer rate.

Tom K

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