The organization that stands for the pci-express standard, the PCI Special Interest Group, or PCI SIG, the competition with Intel’s Thunderbolt technology directly affect through a wired version of the pci-express interface.
A working group of the PCI SIG, the new standard should define, already in July of this year are set. The develop interface is based on version 3.0 of the pci express standard. Each lane of that interface about 8Gbps, and the wired version would initially be four lanes, so 32Gbps of bandwidth, can. The cabled pci express interface, distances of up to three metres can be overcome by using copper wires. About which wires should be not only data to be transported, also power up to 20W should be possible.
In the future, the pci-express interface change to pci-express 4.0, what the bandwidth would double to 16Gbps per lane. Also, a move to optical cabling ahead, what the bridging of larger distances. A connector for the new standard is not yet chosen, but which would, like the cable, is flatter than Thunderbolt.
Is expected to deliver the working group in June 2013, for manufacturers usable specification. Other than the wired pci-express interfaces on pci-express 1.1 and 2.0 are based and mainly in servers for data centers are used, the new version especially in consumer applications. It should include the connection of external drives on laptops.
The Thunderbolt interface, Intel earlier this year introduced and that the pci-express interface has to compete, has a bandwidth of 10Gbps. Also Intel is, however, intend to use the bandwidth to increase in future versions, but also to optical cabling would migrate. The optical variant, formerly known as Light Peak, it would be to 50Gbps can be scaled.
StandaardPci-expressThunderboltUsb 3.0
Bandwidth
4x8Gbps
10Gbps
5Gbps
Cable length
3 metres
3 metres
3-5 meters
Cable type
buyer
buyer
buyer
Energy
20W
10W
4.5 W
Availability
June 2013
February 2011
January 2010
Future
Bandwidth
4x16Gbps
50Gbps
n/a
Cable type
optical
optical
n/a