With over 200 Megabytes per second in each direction for an X1 lane, PCI-Express
claims to be a very cost effective solution for bandwidth per pin.
Intel's Grantsdale chipset provides an X16 link for graphics, some 4 Gigabytes per
second in each direction (8GB/s concurrent bandwidth) dedicated to graphics, over double the bandwidth
offered by AGP 8X. Hopefully, this additional capacity would be able to accomodate graphics demands for the next couple of years.
X16 and X1 PCI Express Slots
PCI Express Slots on the BigWater reference form factor shown at IDF 2002
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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.