A few months ago, we wrote about the industry’s anticipation for the latest version of the PCI Express (PCIe) specification. Well, the wait is finally over: the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) has officially released PCIe Base 3.0. These latest specifications are currently available for PCI-SIG members. As a provider of PCI express standards testing, Allion is excited to learn about the newest version of this technology.
The PCIe v3.0 architecture offers notable improvements over PCIe v2.0 and optimizes the trade-offs between manufacturability, cost, power, complexity, and compatibility. The update doubles the interconnect bandwidth, offering a 128-bit/130-encoding scheme and a data rate of 8 gigatransfers per second (GTps). With the data rate expansion, “It is possible for products designed to the PCIe 3.0 architecture to achieve bandwidth near 1 gigabyte per second (GB/s) in one direction on a single-lane (x1) configuration and scale to an aggregate approaching 32 GB/s on a sixteen-lane (x16) configuration,” according to Benchmark Reviews. PCIe v3.0 is fully backward compatible with previous PCIe architectures and is optimally designed for high-volume platform I/O implementations.
“Each new version of the PCIe spec has doubled the bandwidth of the prior generation,” said Nathan Brookwood, research fellow at Insight 64, in a press release. “The latest group of PCIe architects and designers drove the standard forward while maintaining complete backward compatibility for Gen 1 and Gen 2 devices. Rarely has a standard advanced so non-disruptively through three major evolutionary cycles. The ability to pull this off demonstrates not only the ingenuity of the Gen 3 developers, but also the insight of those who defined the earlier versions in such an extensible manner.”
We’re excited that the wait is over, and we look forward to helping developers deliver exciting new PCIe products with our PCI testing services.
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PCIe 3.0 Here at Last: Welcome to the Future of PCI Testing
PCI Express 3.0 doubles PCIe speed, New tests to follow
[photo: Tweak2]
The long-awaited PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 specification standard is set to arrive in November, opening the doors for a new wave of products featuring faster interconnect speeds. Consumer products using the PCIe 3.0 are expected to arrive as early as the second half of next year.
The PCI Express 3.0 specification will define operating speeds of up to 8 gigatransfers per second (GTps), delivering a significant boost from the 5 GTbps defined by PCIe 2.0. It also offers 128- and 130-bit encoding schemes, improving efficiency from the current 8- and 10-bit format and leaving nearly the entire bandwidth free for signal processing. Other new features include Dynamic Feedback Equalization (DFE), a sophisticated technique in electrical signaling designed to maintain signal integrity. The updated specification is expected to aid the growth of faster PCIe switches, 40Gbit Ethernet chips, high-end graphics cards, and solid-state drives (SSDs). PCIe 3.0 is fully backward compatible with previous generations of PCI technology. The chart below shows how the new standard compares to older PCI specifications.
PCI-SIG, the industry organization chartered to develop and manage the PCI standard, will issue tools to validate designs and start will launch interoperability testing workshops in mid-2011, with specification testing for PCIe 3.0 expected to be completed late next year. We will keep you posted on developments about this exciting specification update as they become available.
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PCI Express 3.0 Doubles PCIe speed, New tests to follow
PCI Express (PCIe) is the latest standard for PC expansion cards and was designed to replace PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) standards. PCIe is used in consumer and industrial applications, including linking motherboard-mounted peripherals such as SATA drives, USB ports and sound cards and also as an expansion card for add-in boards.
The next advancement in the widespread PCIe standard is PCIe 3.0. The future standard will offer double the interconnect bandwidth of the previous generation, enabling higher data transfer speeds. PCIe 3.0 is currently in development by the PCI-SIG, the industry organization chartered to develop and manage the PCI standard, and is anticipated to be released in Q2 2010. PCIe 3.0 offers backward compatibility with previous generations of PCI technology, including software, clocking architecture and mechanical interfaces.
PCIe compliance tests are used for testing PCIe systems and add-in cards. The five PCI Express compliance test areas include electrical testing, configuration testing, link protocol testing, transaction protocol testing and platform BIOS testing. For PCIe 3.0 systems, add-in cards or devices to be placed on the Integrators List, the system or product must pass interoperability and compliance testing. Working with a third-party testing facility will ensure that the product or system can comply with PCI compliance testing.
