PCI Express

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vortec4800

Gawd
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Sep 19, 2003
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I seem to be falling behind on the latest and greatest stuff coming out, so could somebody tell me what exactly PCI Express is? Obviously its a faster version of PCI, but how much faster, and how does it compare to AGP? Will there be an AGP express based on the same technology coming out soon after?
 
Pci express is going to replace AGP and PCI.
PCI express 1X slots will be for stuff that would normally be in a pci slot such as soundcards. PCI express X16 slots will be for graphics cards. Pci express should be out by the middle of the year.
 
PCI Express is simply Intel's way of trying to control even more of your motherboard. PCI Express is basically just a glorified speed bump for PCI and AGP.

It offers different amounts of bandwidth to different cards. For instance, a sound card may only need a 1x or 2x slot, but a video card requires a 16x slot, and, in fact, there's going to be a PCI Express for Graphics subset, sort of like AGP.

Good article on AnandTech a while back about it. I'll dig up a link for ya.
 
Alright, here's a really old one, but it outlines basically everything you need to know.

And here's a page from their most recent IDF write-up, detailing recent events in PCI-X.

Enjoy!
 
Wow great, thanks! :cool:


::imagines when the standard PCI slot will go the way of the ISA slot...::
 
Originally posted by Tekara
hrm, that sucks, I was really hoping that the pci-express would be like the old pci slots, where they were all the same. That way you could use twin high-end graphics cards for multi-monitoring.
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with PCI-E you can do just that, there isn't a limit of only having one PCI-E 16X slot like there is with AGP, so you could have multiple PCI-E 16X slots, totally depends on the manufacturer, but the technology allows it
 
Originally posted by KingoftheBritons
Alright, here's a really old one, but it outlines basically everything you need to know.

And here's a page from their most recent IDF write-up, detailing recent events in PCI-X.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IF I HEAR ONE MORE TIME SOMEONE MENTION PCI-X LIKE ITS THE SAME AS PCI-E I'M GOING TO EXPLODE AND GIBS WILL FLY EVERYWHERE
 
Originally posted by Brent
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IF I HEAR ONE MORE TIME SOMEONE MENTION PCI-X LIKE ITS THE SAME AS PCI-E I'M GOING TO EXPLODE AND GIBS WILL FLY EVERYWHERE
Click to expand...

Well to avoid the airborne gibs, might you explain the difference between PCI-E and PCI-X?
 
Originally posted by Brent
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IF I HEAR ONE MORE TIME SOMEONE MENTION PCI-X LIKE ITS THE SAME AS PCI-E I'M GOING TO EXPLODE AND GIBS WILL FLY EVERYWHERE
Click to expand...
blame intel
 
Originally posted by gigglebyte
hhhuummmm...Apple has PCI-X on their Dual G5 machines already
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Originally posted by Tekara
It's like the AGP 2.0 spec though, you can have two AGP slots right now, but motherboard manufacturer's just don't want to add that second high slot.

I imagine it'll be similar with the pci express slots, cut back costs by only including one 16x.
Click to expand...

maybe maybe not, PCI-E is a pretty big platform upgrade for everyone involved

we may see multiple pci-e 16x slots

i have more confidence in there being multiple pci-e 16x slots than i do with seeing multiple agp 8x slots

i don't think everyone realizes just how big of a platform change this really is
 
PCI Express is a new technology, it is not the same thing as PCI.

PCI-X is just a continuation on PCI, sort of like a newer version.
 
Originally posted by KingoftheBritons
PCI Express is simply Intel's way of trying to control even more of your motherboard. PCI Express is basically just a glorified speed bump for PCI and AGP.
Click to expand...

intel didn't even develop pci express, or pci for that matter.
 
IF I HEAR ONE MORE TIME SOMEONE MENTION PCI-X LIKE ITS THE SAME AS PCI-E I'M GOING TO EXPLODE AND GIBS WILL FLY EVERYWHERE
Click to expand...

I feel your pain Brent. :(

I've long since given up on trying to explain the differences between PCI-E (SERIAL!!!!!!!!!!) and PCI-X (PARALLEL like PCI!!!!! Server oriented!).

I keep a handy baseball bat next to my computer so I can hit myself over the head whenever I see new threads.
 
Originally posted by Brent
asdfjkl;asdfjk;adfjkl;adfjklasdfjalkdjfakldjlksdjldjkldjlkasdfsdjfsdflajfljdlk
Click to expand...

very well put Brent. I couldnt have asked for a more clear and concise answer. :p
 
Originally posted by harmonic
PCI Express is a new technology, it is not the same thing as PCI.

PCI-X is just a continuation on PCI, sort of like a newer version.
Click to expand...
Indeed. One could think of PCI-X as eXtended PCI, offering higher data transfer speeds for servers (mostly).
 
i always considered pcie to be just one aspect of the more significant btx standard.
 
Originally posted by Ocean
i always considered pcie to be just one aspect of the more significant btx standard.
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BTX is a formfactor. It does not mean that it necessarily has new stuff like PCI-E, while ATX doesn't. It merely specifies things like mounting holes, board sizes, height-limits and stuff like that.

And I wouldn't be so quick to call BTX "signficant".
 
eh my bad,
when i learned about btx right after they announced it they touted many layout changes, but they also included all the pcie stuff (voltages, serial bus, etc.) as part of that jump to btx as well as other things pertaining to risers and what devices (and their bandwidth) would attach to a btx board. it seemed as though pcie was just the tech mobo aspect of the whole btx (pc backbone) change.

the information that is out there now destinguishes the 2 more clearly. though they both wre heavily influenced by intel. maybe that is why the initial literature didnt seperate them so clearly.

i stand corrected.
 
So, What I want to know is whats the deal with AMDs Hyper Transport stuff versus PCI Express? I mean it sounds like Hyper Transport is better than PCI Express with it being backwards compatiable with PCI so why doesn't that become the industry standard? Also, When will the search function start working again. I don't like not being able to search for posts before i start posting.

Thanks
 
Originally posted by drewb99
PCIE is for add-on cards. HyperTransport is for CPUs.
Click to expand...

I am just going off on this:
http://www.bunkermentality.net/intel.html


PCI Express is Intel's (somewhat late) answer to Apple and AMD's HyperTransport technology. Like HyperTransport, PCI Express is way to get around the current bandwidth bottleneck between the PC's peripherals and the CPU. This backbone of current PC architecture, which dates to the 486 days, is sorely in need of an update. However, unlike HyperTransport, PCI Express is NOT backwards compatible with existing hardware. When AMD users switched to nVidia's nForce-based motherboards featuring HyperTransport technology, they were able to carry over all their existing PCI cards without exception. The transition was so seamless that many users were probably unaware of the fundamental underlying architectural changes on the motherboard.

Fortunately for the peripheral makers, PCI Express is software compatible with standard PCI, so the basic hardware and drivers will still work, they'll only need to build cards that match the PCI Express form factor. Not so lucky is the PC enthusiast who will have to toss out his sound card and other PCI cards when making the jump to i915/i925.

What is mind boggling to me is why Intel would choose to implement a "standard" that is 95% percent compatible with existing hardware and not find a way to make it fully compatible as Apple and AMD did with HyperTransport. This seems to defy rational explanation. Though I'm sure someone out there will be glad to explain it to me.
 
That article is a bunch of baloney. It doesn't make any sense.

PCI Express does the same things that Hypertransport does. In addition, unlike Hypertransport, PCI Express has slots to plug cards into.

Back in the day, PCI was also the chipset interconnect. The last major chipset to use PCI as the interconnect was the famous BX. After that, chipset makers started using propietary interconnects because there was no replacement for PCI.

Intel used Hublink and eventually AMD (or whoever... the consortium) developed Hypertransport (I imagine AMD and the other chipset makers had something after PCI and before Hypertransport, but I can't remember what). However, they kept the PCI bus for slots to plug cards into. The PCI bus connected through the southbridge, which was connected using Hublink and Hypertransport and etc...

PCI Express finally brings a complete replacement for PCI: one major bus that connects everything (this should have happened a long time ago).

However, for whatever reason, Intel is not using PCI-E as the chipset interconnect, they are using a new serial interconnect that basically does the same thing that Hypertransport does. PCI-E will only be used for its slots.

AMD chipset makers are doing the same thing. They will use a propietary chipset interconnect and use PCI-E for slots (although it is a possibility that some of them may transistion fully to PCI-E).
 
What happens if you stick a pci-e 1x card into a 16x slot?

Hopefully things will operate as though nothings out of place...............
 
Originally posted by Whatsisname
What happens if you stick a pci-e 1x card into a 16x slot?

Hopefully things will operate as though nothings out of place...............
Click to expand...

It is supposed to operate normally, but you won't have any graphics :)

The only difference is that the 16x slot is going to connect directly to the northbridge, while the 1x slots will connect to the southbridge.
 
Originally posted by Whatsisname
What happens if you stick a pci-e 1x card into a 16x slot?

Hopefully things will operate as though nothings out of place...............
Click to expand...

I don't think that will work because the size of the slots are different for 1x and 16x, 16x being about 3 times longer than 1x.
 
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