Initial implementations are designed to co-exist with legacy PCI connectors. As
you can see from the diagram below, a 1X connector sits neatly behind the PCI
slot at the back of the motherboard, allowing either a regular PCI card or a
PCI-Express card to be used.
Other innovations include separating the main "box" from the human interface, and "device-bay" units which allow hot-swapping of cards and other PCI-Express Peripherals.
PCI Express slot on left, hot swappable PCI Express device bays on the right
Even mobile users won't be left out, with the new PCMCIA standard codenamed NEWCARD. The NEWCARD features a form-factor that neatly fits two NEWCARDS side by side in the space of a single CardBus card. Unfortunately, it is not designed to handle graphics, so the possibilities of video upgrades on a laptop are still virtually non-existent. On the bright side, future expansion capabilities range from wireless communications, ultra wideband TV tuners, security card readers to optical compression/encryption and smart clocking.
Single-wide and Double-wide NEWCARDs: a Double-wide is the same width as the old PCMCIA standard
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Anonymous User - Saturday, September 20, 2003 - link
The demo board is a BTX - ATX's successor: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876&p...Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
First, for AGP, the official document about PCI-Express states that it can coexist with AGP. You must know that the PCI Express will only replace the PCI standard, so we can presume that the first board shipping with PCI Express will also ship with AGP.The PCI Express should not require any changes on power supplies, since it can go to lower voltages. I haven't read any technical spec, but it seems to be using some voltage-selection mechanism very similar to what is being used in USB devices (which did not require any power-supply mods).
Finally, for the form factor... well, I admit that I dunno. Form what I have read, no form factor mod should be necessary, but the demo board confuses me!
CYA!
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
the transition from PCI to PCI Express won't happen overnight. ISA slots had stuck around for nearly 10 years before they were finally gone, so don't assume that your PCI peripherals are obsolete just yet.Thats very nice. But how about my brand new fancy AGP graphics card? I assume that purchasing a PCI-express motherboard also forces me to buy a new videocard.
Also when looking at the Intel layout demoboard I assume that there will also be a change in form factors and possibly also in power supplies. This means that all current cases would be obsolete then...
I realy enjoy the things that are going to happen in 2004 to the PC marked though! It's a real revolution again.