PCI Express 2.0 - How long before it's in a Mac?
PCI Express 2.0 has been finalized "which doubles the interconnect bit rate from 2.5GT/s to 5GT/s to support high-bandwidth applications."
"The specification seamlessly extends the data rate to 5GT/s in a manner compatible with all existing PCIe 1.1 products currently supporting 2.5GT/s signaling. The key benefit of PCIe 2.0 is its faster signaling, effectively increasing the aggregate bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 GB/s. The higher bandwidth will allow product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve high performance while reducing cost."
Any rumors on how long it will be before we see this in a Mac?
- Jasen.
"The specification seamlessly extends the data rate to 5GT/s in a manner compatible with all existing PCIe 1.1 products currently supporting 2.5GT/s signaling. The key benefit of PCIe 2.0 is its faster signaling, effectively increasing the aggregate bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 GB/s. The higher bandwidth will allow product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve high performance while reducing cost."
Any rumors on how long it will be before we see this in a Mac?
- Jasen.
Comments
Apple doesn't have a computer using Conroe/Kentsfield yet, and I believe the iMac (in its current form factor) will never get a real desktop chip, TDP ?= 65W).
The other chipset supposed to have PCIe2 is Seaburg for Xeon processors, but I have no clue about the availability (late 2007, maybe?).
But I still believe Apple should release an "in-between" desktop computer, maybe at the WWDC with the release of Bearlake (Q2/Q3):
- dual/quad core single Wolfdale/Yorkfield CPU, PCIe2, DDR2 RAM...
and at the same time:
- octo-core Mac Pro with dual Xeon 5300 series CPUs (2.00/2.33/2.66GHz)...