PCI Express goes 2.0, transfer rate doubles
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 17th 2007 3:31AM
posted Jan 17th 2007 3:31AM
Folks sure busted out the champagne when PCI Express took the wand from AGP, and while this announcement isn't quite as monumental, doubling transfer speeds ain't nothing to balk at. PCI-SIG, the higher-ups involved in rolling out new PCI Express protocols, unveiled today the PCIe Base 2.0 specifications, which noted that the "interconnect bit rate" would be heading from 2.5GT/s to 5GT/s to better "support high-bandwidth applications." The primary benefits extending from the revamped standard include "faster signaling, increasing the aggregate bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 Gbps," and of course, the backwards compatibility with current PCIe 1.1 products. Notably, Intel's "Bearlake" family of chipsets will purportedly support PCI Express 2.0, and if all goes as planned, should start shipping "next quarter."[Via RegHardware]
"PCIe Base 2.0 specifications, which noted that the "interconnect bit rate" would be heading from 2.5GT/s to 5GT/s"
What the hell is a GT/s?
GT/s is what they use to measure the max Fillrate
GT/s is the abbreviation for GigaTransactions per second, referring to 1 billion Transactions per second. Hope this explains it 8)
GT/s = Giga Transfer per Second. They were talking about the future of the PCI-Express specification back in 2002. They even said that the next revision will probably be 10GT/s.
NOOO!!!
This means my computer's pci-express slot is out of date! And I won't be able to upgrade to the best Graphics Card next Christmas. Well this sucks. Now I have to get a new mobo to support it. (only if socket T supports it)
You can expect PCI Express 2.0 peripherals to still work in PCIe 1.0 slots; they will just downclock to 1.0 speeds, the same way that SATA/300 drives work just fine on SATA/150 interfaces.
Now I have to wait before I upgrade... DAMN!
I was listening to Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson's Security Now! podcast episodes 73 & 74, and they were mentioning that Vista is mandating encryption over the high speed bus to output HD (which is difficult). I wonder what sorts of motherboard and video card modifications will be required to allow even more bandwidth over that bus (assuming that is necessary at all)?
aww. the rookie 8800 GTX needs an upgrade.
bandwidth is seriously becoming a bottleneck for performance in today's market (or possibly tomorrow). doubling the transfer rate is very much welcomed.
i wonder when intel is going to support DDR3 ram, and when is ddr3 ram gonna be available. paired up with a 64-bit cpu and it's like getting an 8-lane highway in new york.
Because PCIE 16x wasn't overkill enough
I wonder if this is what was holding up a "Mac Pro" announcement at the recent Macworld? The current models are getting a bit long in the tooth...
wow, now i cant wait to get a new motherboard to support AMD's quad-core along with 2 PCI-E 2.0 slots Crossfire.
ATI R600 is going to smoke Nvidia when PCI-E 2.0 comes out.
Note that the new maximum bandwidth for 16 lane PCIe is approximately 16 GB/s, not Gbps. That's a difference of 8x (B=Byte, b=bit).
I thought PCIe 2.0 was also supposed to define an external interface -- allowing the ability for plug-in external video cards.
dang.... just this last monday I pony'd up 100 big ones for a mew 8X AGP...are you saying I'm behind the times...?
(yeah, I know I am, but I just dont have the money to throw at constantly having the latest and greatest...nor the need for it...I got a 360 for games...so I have no need for this...I'm running a 3ghz Pent 4 with a gig of ram.....I dont plan on doing anything else major (since I just got my new vid card), for like 2 years...By which times I'll do a good upgrade...by then I'll probably go from a single core...to dual Quad core. :p