PCI-SIG Board of Directors Approve PCI Express Specifications for High-Performance Serial I/O.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 2002 PCI Express A high-speed peripheral interconnect from Intel introduced in 2002. Note that although sometimes abbreviated "PCX," PCI Express is not the same as "PCI-X" (see PCI-SIG and PCI-X for comparison). As a result of the confusion, "PCI-E" or "PCIe" is the accepted abbreviation. (TM) Base and Card Specifications Open Doors for Low-Cost, High-Performance Platforms and Innovative Form Factors The PCI-SIG, the Special Interest Group responsible for PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). , PCI-X (PCI eXtended) An enhanced PCI bus technology originally developed by IBM, HP and Compaq that is backward compatible with existing PCI cards. PCI and 32-bit PCI-X slots are physically the same, and PCI cards can plug into PCI-X slots. (1) and PCI Express industry-standard I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output technologies, announced today that its board of directors has approved the official public release of the PCI Express specifications. PCI Express is a new serial I/O technology compatible with the current PCI software environment that offers low-cost, scalable performance for the next generation of computing and communications platforms. The documents being released include the Base specification that covers the electrical, protocol and software aspects of the technology as well as the Card specification for design of PCI Express cards and slots in computing and communications platforms. Together, these two specifications provide all of the information that silicon and systems engineers need to begin their PCI Express product designs today. PCI Express Addresses Current and Future I/O An input/output architecture developed by IBM, HP and Compaq that evolved into InfiniBand. Future I/O was expected to replace the PCI bus in high-end servers with a switching matrix, providing a high-speed data path between each pair of nodes. Needs "PCI Express was developed with the common goal of extending PCI to meet the present and future computing and communications interconnect requirements of our members," said Tony Pierce, chairman of the PCI-SIG. "With significant developer interest, PCI Express enters the enablement phase." "PCI Express provides the performance and system design flexibility required for the next generation computing and communications platform component interconnects while also providing a long-term path to improved I/O slots," said Al Yanes, president of the PCI-SIG. "Moving forward, PCI Express will hold a prime spot at our PCI-SIG Compliance and Interoperability Workshops, Plugfests and Developers Conferences." "The PCI Express Base and Card specifications establish a solid foundation by balancing cost, performance, compatibility and advanced features necessary for both computing and communications platforms," said Ajay Bhatt, chairman of the PCI-SIG's PCI Express workgroup. "Building on excellent collaboration and outstanding technical contributions from its members, the PCI Express workgroup continues to work diligently on enablement efforts for early silicon and system designs while developing additional PCI Express specifications to support new applications and form factors." Bandwidth, Scalability and More Suitable for both chip-to-chip and add-in card implementations, PCI Express defines a packetized protocol and a layered architecture An architecture in which data moves from one defined level of processing to another. Communications protocols are a primary example. See OSI model. that enables attachment to copper, optical, or emerging physical signaling media. These properties, combined with an initial bit rate of 2.5 Gigabits per second per lane per direction, make PCI Express an ideal attach point for performance-intensive applications such as next-generation graphics, video editing See nonlinear video editing and video editor. and streaming multi-media, as well as high-speed interconnects such as 1394b, USB USB in full Universal Serial Bus Type of serial bus that allows peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, digitizers, data gloves, etc.) to be easily connected to a computer. 2.0, InfiniBand and Gigabit Ethernet An Ethernet standard that transmits at 1 Gbps. Used mostly to connect high-end workstations and servers as well as for network backbones, Gigabit Ethernet transmits full duplex from point to point using switches and half duplex in a shared environment (CSMA/CD) using a hub. . In addition to offering superior bandwidth, performance and scalability in both width and frequency, PCI Express offers other advanced features built from the ground up. These features include QoS (quality of service), aggressive power management, native hot-plug, bandwidth per pin efficiency, error reporting, recovery and correction and innovative form factors, and meet the growing demands for sophisticated capabilities such as peer-to-peer transfers and dynamic reconfiguration. PCI Express also enables low-cost design of products via low pin counts and wires. The PCI Express architecture unifies general-purpose I/O and graphics I/O and provides many RAS (1) See network access server. (2) (Remote Access Service) A Windows NT/2000 Server feature that allows remote users access to the network from their Windows laptops or desktops via modem. See RRAS and network access server. breakthrough features to enable robust system designs that combine improved partitioning, superior performance and low-cost implementation. The inherent nature of PCI Express will enable exciting new form factors beyond its current PCI-compatible form factor, as well as interoperability options for innovative system designs. A linearly scaled 16-lane PCI Express interconnect can provide data transfer rates of more than 8 Gigabytes per second. Join PCI-SIG to Obtain the PCI Express Specification The new PCI Express Base and Card specifications will be posted to the PCI-SIG web site at www.pcisig.com during the week of July 22nd. The specifications are available to PCI-SIG members free of charge. If you are not a member, PCI-SIG specifications are available as open industry standards for a fee. Ordering information is available at www.pcisig.com/specifications. For questions on ordering this specification, please contact PCI-SIG Administration at administration@pcisig.com. (1) Note to Editors: On July 23rd, the PCI-SIG also announced board approval of the PCI-X 2.0 specification in a separate press release. Please see web site for details. About the PCI-SIG The PCI-SIG is the Special Interest Group that owns and manages PCI specifications as open industry standards. The organization defines and implements new industry standard I/O standard I/O - standard input/output (Input/Output) specifications as the industry's local I/O needs evolve. The PCI Special Interest Group was formed in 1992, and the organization became a nonprofit corporation nonprofit corporation n. an organization incorporated under state laws and approved by both the state's Secretary of State and its taxing authority as operating for educational, charitable, social, religious, civic or humanitarian purposes. , officially named "PCI-SIG" in the year 2000. Currently, more than 780 industry-leading companies are active PCI-SIG members. The PCI-SIG's current directors are employed by the following PCI-SIG member companies: Adaptec, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, www.amd.com) A major manufacturer of semiconductor devices including x86-compatible CPUs, embedded processors, flash memories, programmable logic devices and networking chips. , HP, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix Technologies, ServerWorks and TI. For more information about the PCI-SIG, and PCI-SIG membership benefits, contact the PCI-SIG by phone, at 800/433-5177 (within the United States), or by fax at 503/297-1090, or visit the PCI-SIG web site at: http://www.pcisig.com All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. |
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