After evaluating the feasibility of the possibility to scale the PCIe architecture to data flows of 8GT/s, PCI-SIG has now announced that 8GT/s is indeed possible for the next generation PCIe architecture that will arrive in 2010. PCIe 3.0 will be backwards compatible, just like the previous generations, but have twice the bandwidth of PCIe 2.0. More specifications will be released as we close in on the final release date in late 2009. The preceding generation, PCIe 2.0, is expected to arrive on broad fronts in little more than a month with the arrival of AMD’s and Intel’s new high-end chipsets X38 and RD790.
Both of these have CrossFire support and if there is anything Radeon HD 2900 XT CF needs it’s more PCIe bandwidth. We’re very eager to especially try out the X38 and its PCIe 2.0, we can’t emphasize that enough (and we will be doing it soon, very soon).
“Experts in the PCIe Electrical Workgroup analyzed both 10GT/s and 8GT/s as target bit rates for the next generation of PCIe architecture, and after careful consideration of several factors, including power, implementation complexity and silicon area, recommended 8GT/s, /…/ This allows us to satisfy the next generation performance requirements for all existing PCIe applications while maintaining backward compatibility, and at the same time broadening the adoption of this pervasive technology into new and emerging applications and usage models.” – Al Yanes, PCI-SIG chairman.
PCIe 3.0 will also bring “a number of optimizations for enhanced signaling and data integrity, including transmitter and receiver equalization, PLL improvements, clock data recovery, and channel enhancements for currently supported topologies. “ In other words, tons of goodies and speed for everyone to enjoy.
