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PCI Express - Coming Soon to a PC Near You

Posted by michael on from the time-to-replace-all-your-cards-again dept.

Max Romantschuk writes "I've been following the emerging of PCI Express for some time now. PCI Express, previously known as "Third Generation I/O" or "3GIO", is the technology set to replace PCI. PCI has been with us for around ten years now, and is rapidly running out of bandwidth. Last week Anandtech ran an interresting story on PCI Express. The techology has previously been covered by Hexus and ExtremeTech aswell. I feel this technology looks all set to replace PCI, and we really do need some new bus technology to keep up with the bandwidth demands of today's applications. Or is this just yet another way to force us into a new upgrade cycle?"

5 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. Does PCI Express solve the shared IRQ problem? by WeiszNet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    More than bandwidth, what I need would be a bus
    that doesn't have a problem with too many extensions
    because of a limited number of IRQs.

    Today most mainboard come with many onboard PCI componentes. If you really are going to put in 3-5 extra PCI components in a stock PC, you usually end up in a nice game of 'let's see what order works best', or cannot use all cards together at all.

  2. About time by zensonic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Given that the PCI interface was introduced to the world by intel in 1992 and that we since have increased the cpu processing powers by a hundred fold (give or take a little) it is really about time that the bus catches up.

    --
    Thomas S. Iversen
  3. What upgrade cycle? by simong_oz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or is this just another way to force an upgrade cycle?

    It may well be one of the intentions of it, but one thing I don't get is that with CPU speeds and hard disk capacities where they are now, the average computer buyer (which probably is not very well represented on slashdot) no longer really needs to upgrade their computer, so changing interface/slot shape/etc won't really matter to them.

    I know I'm generalising, but the only applications that really push today's computers are games (and high end scientific programs, but they're a fairly minor special case) and I would guess that most computers are not used primarily for games (ie. "serious gamers" - think families). Serious gamers will always be upgrading their computer to the latest and greatest anyway - they don't need to be forced into an upgrade cycle.

    It's getting to the point now where by the time the average family decides they need to upgrade their computer, it is easier (and maybe even cheaper) to just buy the latest middle-of-the-line computer package.

    I'd almost question whether the idea whole idea of upgrading is itself becoming obsolete for an average computer user?

    --
    "Because it's there." - George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt Everest, March 18, 1923 (New York Times)
  4. No use. The well has been poisoned. by JCCyC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Never again will any announcement of new hardware technology be received by us geeks with the glee it once was. The only thing that comes to our minds now is "great, another opportunity for them to add DRM and phase out hardware that allows copying"

  5. Re:Why? by dissy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > What PCI device are you using that is bandwidth limited & will benefit
    > from a faster PCI bus?

    Gigabit ethernet, soon 10gbit ethernet..
    multiple firewire buses, or even one firewire 800 bus..
    Multiple high speed graphics cards..
    Multiple SCSI or fiberchannel buses..

    > I don't have anything.

    > I really have nothing that will gain any benefit.

    Well thank you for deciding that what you need is exactly what everyone else needs and they should be happy with that :P