PCI Express 2.0 Specifications

On this week PCI-Sig has released PCI-Express 2.0 specifications. General improvements are:

• Dynamic link speed management allows developers to control the speed at which the link is operating

• Link bandwidth notification alerts platform software (operating system, device drivers, etc) of changes in link speed and width

• Capability structure expansion increases control registers to better manage devices, slots and the interconnect

• Access control services allows for optional controls to manage peer-to-peer transactions

• Completion timeout control allows developers to define a required disable mechanism for transaction timeouts

• Function-level reset provides an optional mechanism to reset functions within a multi-function device

• Power limit redefinition enables slot power limit values to accommodate devices that consume higher power

But the main improvements are:

• The interconnect bit rate is doubled from 2.5GT/s to 5GT/s to support high-bandwidth applications
• Power source is doubled from 75W to 150W. Also 8-pin power-connector can provide additional 150W
• The higher bandwidth will allow product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve high performance while reducing cost

• Reverse support of PCI-Express 1.x video cards and motherboards

I want to discuss the main improvements. The interconnect bit rate is doubled. But do you know that video cards don’t use all bandwidth of PCIe? They always enlarge bit rate for future purpose, but this future never comes. New PCIe specifications come faster. Improvement for power source has 2 sides. First side – video card can be more powerful and use more power (good side). Second side – we have new 8-pin power connector (bad side). You’ll have to buy it before video card (of course if video card uses more than 150W). And of course, reverse support. It’s great that you can connect your old PCIe 1.x video card to new motherboard with PCIe 2.0 support and reverse. Upgrade step-by-step, as I call it.

Summarize this new standard. All improvements are extensive. PCI Express is developed. And it has big future

Written by mente on January 17th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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