As expected, PCI Express turned 2.0 by fiat of the PCI Special Interest Group, the industry cooperative that governs the specification and announced the new version Monday.
PCI Express--a modernized sequel to the original PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) that spread to essentially every server and PC since it was introduced in the 1990s--can transfer 2.5 gigabits per second on each wire, pin or other electrical connection called "lanes" between a computer and a plug-in device. PCI Express 2.0 doubles that rate to 5Gbps, and as with the existing PCIe, multiple lanes can be ganged together.
PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 probably will first arrive about a year from now, said Al Yanes, chairman of the PCI SIG.
"As with PCIe 1.0, we expect the graphics guys to be the first adopters of PCIe 2.0," Yanes said. The technology also will be used in cards for high-speed networks including InfiniBand, Ethernet and Fibre Channel, he said.
The PCI Express 2.0 speed isn't fixed, though. For one thing, the new version is backward compatible, meaning that older, slower devices can plug in. For another, an extension to the specification permits hardware to control the speed at which a PCI connection runs.
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