Will PCI Express start a new bus war with other solutions such as PCI-X and HyperTransport?

The PCI Express Working Group, Arapahoe, claims that these buses are targeted at different solutions. RapidIO and HyperTransport were developed for specific applications while PCI-Express is designed for general usage.

The possibility that PCI Express could replace HyperTransport as a processor to processor interconnect is also unlikely. PCI-Express lacks the cache coherency protocols and its higher latency than parallel interconnects with source-synchronous clocks make it inappropriate for that type of usage. Certainly, AMD and nVidia have nothing to fear. Intel probably would not use it to replace the P4 bus either, since an open PCI Express standard means that Intel would not be able to charge third party chipset vendors for P4 bus licensing.

It's all bandwidth... Conclusion
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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.

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