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PCI SIG Releases PCIe 2.0
symbolset notes that The Register is reporting that PCI SIG has released version 2.0 of the PCI Express base specification: "The new release doubles the signaling rate from 2.5Gbps to 5Gbps. The upshot: a x16 connector can transfer data at up to around 16GBps." The PCI-SIG release also says that the electromechanical specification is due to be released shortly.
Now I can play games at 600fps- I've so been needing the boost- 200fps just doesn't cut it.
But seriously- the data acquisition and video rendering markets should benefit from this. Cool.
After these many years of reading slashdot.org (ala 1998) - This is my first post. Boy am I glad I'm waiting for the nextgen motherboard. 16 GB/s. Yikes!
Slower than they get easier to create.
~= scwizard =~
The signalling rates are measured in GT/s not Gbps (correct me if I'm wrong). The new release doubles the current 2.5 GT/s to 5 GT/s. As a comparison, the 2.5 GT/s is about 500 MB/s bandwith per lane thus 16 GB/s in a 32 lane configuration.
i ssue01/art02_pcix_mobile/p01_abstract.htm
I tried to do the math but I just can't get it right with Gbps instead of GT/s.
http://www.intel.com/technology/itj/2005/volume09
Now I can type at 16GBpS! Imagine how fat and poorly-designed our operating systems can be now! Th1s r0cks[shift one]
Don't trust anyone under thirty.
I know this is news, and actually relevant to /. (for once), but I find it hard to care. Sure the specification is out, but it will take a long time I suspect to find its way into computers (since the existing version is so entrenched), and even longer for cards to be made that take full advantage of it. Is there something I am missing that will make this new standard magically find its way into computers in the next few months? Do I have to turn in my geek card now?
Philosophy.
It'll be interesting to compare the performance of the built-in GPU unit in the new Fusion AMD processors, and the latest PCIe.
That said, of course PCIe has more applications than hosting a GPU card.
the electromechanical specification is due to be released shortly.
I hope this means they will release the specification to the public unlike the AGP spec.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
2.5 to 5 Gb is still "only" 250 to 500 MB (roughly). My SGI Octanes could do that 7 years ago! (And still do that regularly, for the record). So what's the fuss?
Radio frequency bluetooth style bus architectures with decent range set up in a fashion to share resources with nearby devices creating mainframe style computers for all to use. This should be the new standard for bus architectures, whaddaya think?
This is just another device us Linux users will have to pay the extra fee, for useless vista compatibility
This is a firmware upgrade, right?
Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
I think you just canceled your geek card.
Some interest in the next generation of technology, rather than just what you can buy in the local store today, is required for membership.
Intel is scheduled to start shipping their X38 (aka "Bearlake") chipsets Q3 of this year. The final v2 spec may have just been released but it's been in development for sometime allowing engineers to at least rough out designs. Also, much of the logic from previous v1.x chipsets can be reused as v2 is an evolution not a completely new interconnect standard.
Can someone explain why it's called 'PCI' Express when it doesn't have much to do with PCI, and the slots aren't backwards compatible? Is it a variant of the marketing rule that any successful network transport must be called Ethernet?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Why does this post not come from any department?
;)
How am I able to see how trustworthy posts like this are when I don't know where they are from?
until you get rid of copyrights, patents and incorporation.
Oh, and laws like DMCA and the newer laws on madatory DRM.
They aren't capitalist. They're socialist.
I like the idea of the Pci-e cable, the workgroup is working on that with the speed of Pci-e 1.1 as bonus part of the Pci-e 2 spec. Why replace the expensive double dual DVI port with another single task port when you can run a 1.5 meter Pci-e cable to the big screen displays of tommorrow? If the display would have a framebuffer that is all you would need. Remember that AMD is working on bringing a GPU to the CPU, which could do some other math when not used a GPU.
Now what if you want some added 3D power on such a compact Pci-e 2 only system? Well stick a proper 3D card to the back of your display and plug the Pci-e cable into it.
--
Dennis Pennekamp
In your article, you say "The upshot: a x16 connector can transfer data at up to around 16GBps." (GigaBytes per second) Everyone else is reporting as 16gbps (Gigabits per second). I realize it is only a factor of eight off, but I expect better from /.
I did not get the following from the article,
Does this mean it will work on my computer now if i get a firmware upgrade, or do I need to replace the part on the motherboard with a newer one to allow me this new speed.
If I need an firmware upgrade, will I get it from windows, from the motherboard manufacturer, or just any site will do.
If I do need to buy it, how long before any cards are made and what price can we expect to pay.
I can get a P4 used, with all the bells and whistles for about 200$ CND -minus the dvd burner(another 50$)...if this is going to cost more then 100$, I wont bother,
I don't need the speed enough to go faster at reading my emails, or
checking the latest p00rn websites
How does an x16 get 16 Gigabytes/s with a rate of 5 Gigabit/s that seems to me to be 16*5Gb/s=80Gb/s=10GB/s since we still have to cram 8 bits into a byte.
How long in tell we start to see HTX video and other cards?
Even then it isn't easy - my company is a member but it's easier for me to go to the store and buy a copy of the Anderson book on PCIe than to get the official spec.
High-end GPUs are so large there's no room to fit a processor on the same die. So Fusion will inevitably have lower performance than the best discrete GPUs.
I attended the PCI SIG conference on virtualization for the new spec. There are two forms of virtualization that will (eventually) be supported - multiple operating systems on the same machine having access to their own private virtual PCI bus, and multi-mastered PCI busses where you can have multiple mainboards driving a virtual PCI bus that spans multiple machines.
The latter is a godsend for cluster builders - why bother with having tightly-coupled NICs on the far side of the PCI bus, when you can simply have the PCI bus carry everything directly to the endpoint? There's less work, less conversion, so less latency and fewer possibilities of data errors. Since it's 5 Gb/s per lane, you can also get speeds far in excess of those offered by most NIC vendors, if you're careful about how the bus divides up the bandwidth between nodes.
So, yes, I imagine the high-end HPC market will have machines that can do PCIe 2 in fairly short order.
Will anyone else see the benefits? Oh, I imagine high-end data centers will be interested. They can now double the width of striped disk arrays and not worry about bandwidth. Microsoft and VMWare will be urging rapid adoption, because of the virtualization abilities - it'll be faster than software virtualization and Microsoft gets to blame someone else if something goes wrong.
Intel will almost certainly be pushing the technology, as the spec allows for proprietary extensions. This means that they can build controllers that can work only with vendors they approve of (and AMD is unlikely to be one of them). Doesn't matter if Intel would or would not do that, what matters is that they can, which means if they're first to implement, they get a BIG stick to ward off rivals.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The signalling rates are measured in GT/s not Gbps (correct me if I'm wrong).
I'd have to know what a GT/s was first. Gross Tonnes per second? Gigatonnes per second? Gigatexels per second? Gran Turismos per second?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Ok, what gives with PCI? Off the top of my head:
PCI 2.0
PCI 2.1
PCI 2.2
PCI Express
PCI-X
PCIe
PCIe 2.0
I have no clue what is what. The earlier versions were 5 volts, the new versions are 3.3. The slot also changed after 2.1, and if I'm not mistaken the pinouts did as well. What the hell do we need all these revisions for? More importantly, what the hell is PCI any more? PCI 2.1 looks nothing like PCIe, the voltage is different, the pinouts are different, yet it's still PCI. Time for a new name!
I have absolutely no idea what this poster is talking about. The only similarity between PCI and PCI-e is that from a software point of view, pointer derefernces can be used to communicate to both types of devices. PCI-e has a lot more in common with PCI-X than PCI. The fact of the matter is that I can personally code up a PCI interface with DMA inVHDL in about a week to be synthesized in an older FPGA (about a month with testing), but it would take a team of 10 at least a year to do the same in PCI-e.
As for the glue logic... that chip is enormously complicated and can't be fabricated in any process older than 110 nm.
It's compatible... but only in a manner of speaking. It's like saying that ATA can be interfaced to PCI with some glue logic... true, but it kind of misses the point.
The main reason this spec exists is to replace AGP, but it also reduces the pin count for expansion busses. The enhanced graphics throughput will be useful for consumers, but I would challenge you to find another use for it.
The fact of the matter is that PCI isn't all that useful any more anyhow. Because the functionality of the PC is becoming very well defined, the expansion market is shrinking drastically. On the expansion front, Intel is simply trying to reduce their cost for functionality that nobody uses.
What is SIG doing to make it 2.0 by 2x the signal rate, put in DDR? PICMG might be fine even without physical layer provided. I hope in 3.0 they would take advantage on the lanes and p2p to do interesting things like mesh + BT to boost. With Infiniband and 10GbE made an impact and PCI-X 1066 backplane bbq grilling, which would come out first, 100GbE on copper or this.