PCI Express 2.0 specs finalised

By Iain Thomson on Jan 17, 2007 8:58 AM
Filed under Hardware

Computer industry gears up for new standard.

The PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) has released the final specification for the second version of the PCI Express standard.

The new standard doubles the interconnect bit rate from 2.5 to 5.0 giga-transfers per second, increasing the potential bandwidth to 16Gbps. The new design is fully backwards compatible with PCI v1.1.

Computers using the new standard are likely to roll off the production line by the end of the year, and Intel has already committed to using PCI v1.1 in its new 'Bearlake' chipset.

A number of other improvements have been built in, including dynamic link speed management which governs data throughput and power use to suit the varying demands placed on the connection.

Software house Denali has announced that it is ready for the new standard.

"Our customers depend on high quality verification and IP solutions in step with the latest revisions from the PCI-SIG and can look forward to steady updates as the specification matures," said David Lin, vice president of product marketing at Denali.