The PCI Special Interest Group has voted to make 5 Gbits/s the data rate for the next-generation of PCI Express, adding another multigigabit physical layer serial interconnect to a growing crowd.
Express is taking off rapidly in the PC, where it was initially aimed, but faces stiff competition among other link technologies in communications and storage networking gear.
The so-called Gen2 spec is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2005, and will hit the market in products by 2007. The group also investigated 5, 6 and 6.25 Gbits/s as possible next-generation speeds.
The 6.25 Gbits/s speed aligns with next-generation Ethernet interconnects now coming on line from several vendors. It was also said to be favored by graphics companies hungry for maximum bandwidth. The 6 Gbits/s rate was also favored by backers of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), who selected that speed for their road map.
Source: EE Times
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