The PCI-SIG (Special Interest Group) consortium has unveiled the final specifications of PCI Express 2.0.
The major innovation of this new revision is the data bi-directional transfer rate of 500 MB/s for each PCI-E links instead of 250 MB /s previously or 8 GB /s for x16 links. As the retro-compatibility with the PCI-E 1.1 is ensured, it will be possible to install current PCI-E cards in PCI-E 2.0 slots.
Other major innovations have been brought including the reduction of the power consumption, but the most interesting are Dynamic link speed management and Link bandwidth notification which allow the OS and drivers to adjust the functioning speed of the PCI-E link. PCI-E 2.0 will also support peripherals requiring more energy, but we believe that it won't probably not be enough for all SLI/Crossfire configurations.
Intel will be the first to release chipsets compatible with this norm during the second or third quarter of this year.
The PCI-SIG (Special Interest Group) consortium has unveiled the final specifications of PCI Express 2.0.