Thursday, June 23rd 2011
PCI Takes on Thunderbolt, Big Worries for its Promoters
Did you know what lies behind the USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt controller? It's of course the bus that connects it to the rest of the system, PCI-Express. It is the 500 MB/s per lane interconnect that is indirectly responsible for the awesome bandwidth that today's plug and play interfaces such as eSATA 6 Gb/s, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt 10 Gb/s enjoy. What if you could eliminate the protocol overhead that comes with any of those protocols, and make PCI-Express directly an interconnect? So thought the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG), the body that decides the fate of PCI. The SIG is planning to create a cabled version of PCI-Express Gen 3, that has no secondary protocol overhead, not even of the kind Infiniband has.
A single PCI-Express 3.0 lane can provide 8 Gbps (1 GB/s) of bandwidth in each direction, the new cabled interconnect can supply bandwidth of four Gen 3 lanes, totaling 32 Gbps, over three times that of the current version of Thunderbolt. Apart from that bandwidth, cabled PCI-E will be designed to supply 20W of power to its devices, plenty of power for even a small 3-bay HDD rack. The connector itself will be designed to be very compact and flat, so it can be fitted into notebooks and tablets. PCI SIG plans to have the first specifications of cabled PCI-Express ready before June 2013. By 2013, Intel will be about 2 years away from releasing its proposed 50 Gbps version of Thunderbolt, but even then, Thunderbolt is an additional protocol that sits over the system bus (again, PCI-Express), unless Intel designs Thunderbolt controllers to somehow talk to CPU over QPI.
Source:
EETimes
A single PCI-Express 3.0 lane can provide 8 Gbps (1 GB/s) of bandwidth in each direction, the new cabled interconnect can supply bandwidth of four Gen 3 lanes, totaling 32 Gbps, over three times that of the current version of Thunderbolt. Apart from that bandwidth, cabled PCI-E will be designed to supply 20W of power to its devices, plenty of power for even a small 3-bay HDD rack. The connector itself will be designed to be very compact and flat, so it can be fitted into notebooks and tablets. PCI SIG plans to have the first specifications of cabled PCI-Express ready before June 2013. By 2013, Intel will be about 2 years away from releasing its proposed 50 Gbps version of Thunderbolt, but even then, Thunderbolt is an additional protocol that sits over the system bus (again, PCI-Express), unless Intel designs Thunderbolt controllers to somehow talk to CPU over QPI.
28 Comments on PCI Takes on Thunderbolt, Big Worries for its Promoters
Say you want to connect a TV to your laptop: With Thunderbolt, you connect the TV to the laptop and pipe the Display Port protocol over the Thunderbolt link. With PCIe you would essentially need a GPU on the other side displaying the image on the TV for the same thing. While a solution can be found, this example does show the difference between the concepts of PCIe and Thunderbolt.
Its all you love about your GPU, cept in a handy PCIe 5.25 box. Don't like your GPU's performance....swwwwwwaaaaaaapp it out with a new GPU in a box and get more performance right away, or your money back!! Its so easy, even an chimp in diapers can do it!!
Quick, someone get me a chimp in diapers...preferably one with an Uzi that blows snot bubbles when it sleeps. Yes, that is a Metal Slug analogy.
Seriously tho...if the tech was used in a console or a build a PC for dummies kit, it would be interesting. Imagine being able to upgrade without opening the hardware. Everything is modular and in it's own compartment like a giant Tetris game. Think N64 RAM upgrade back in the day. Regular people could do it.
Imagine a laptop (choose your size and flavor) with USB3.0, Thunderbolt, and thie PCI express out. I have said laptop with Ivory Bridge etc. and integrated graphics, getting 12+ hours battery. I can lug around a small box that looks like a portable hdd or battery pack -- this box is a GPU with battery, so it does not drain battery from the laptop nor add any additional heat. This "GPU to GO" costs as much as you are willing to pay... different models with different battery life. If designed properly, the laptop could be stacked on top and just act as a laptop cooler stand.
I personally would love to have an optional GPU to carry only when I plan on needing the power.
I fully agree though. Having an extension base that can add hardware such as a video card or battery pack (ASUS transformer for the full-on battery/keyboard) is a very novel idea for quick and easy portability without compromising the power of the laptop.
What about pci lanes?
Apple, feel the raw double-Pwnage! Firewire & now this... :o
I'm actually pretty excited about this. At last, it may eliminate what is becoming a connector-type excess.
they better get on with releasin it simples or by the time it cracks being the accepted std intel will have side stepped it entirely out of existence.
im no intel fan but appears to me(due to tri gate etc) that intels got its r+d labs on the job proper now thanks to AMD's regular competition with them as well as others
Stop blowing money on this crap people!
WIRELESS DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!! :banghead:
For low-bandwidth peripherals we already have Bluetooth.
Little bit late in the game to worrying about that dont you think?