The PCI-SIG organization responsible for the development of PCI Express specifications announced the adoption of the specifications in the final edition of version 5.0. The development of PCIe 5.0 has set an industry record. The specifications were developed and approved in just 18 months. PCIe 4.0 specifications are out . We are now almost into summer 2019, and the final version of PCIe 5.0 is already available for download from the organization's website (for registered members). For a traditional bureaucratic system, this is a miracle of acceleration. Why was it in such a hurry?
PCIe version 4.0 specifications have been in development and adoption for 7 years. By the time they were approved, they no longer met new challenges: machine learning, AI, and other resource-intensive loads in terms of throughput during data exchange between the processor, storage subsystems and accelerators, including video cards. Significant acceleration of the PCI Express bus was required to satisfactorily support new workloads. In version 5.0, the exchange speed was again doubled compared to the previous standard: from 16 gigatransactions per second to 32 gigatransactions per second (in terms of 8 lines).
The exchange rate per line, therefore, is now about 4 GB / s. For the classic configuration of 16 lines, adopted for video card interfaces, the speed began to reach 64 GB / s. Since the PCI Express standard operates in full duplex mode, allowing simultaneous data transfer in both directions, the total bandwidth of the PCIe x16 bus will reach 128 GB / s.
The PCIe 5.0 specifications provide for backward compatibility with previous generations of devices up to version 1.0. Despite this, the mounting connector has been improved, although it has not lost backwards compatibility. The mechanical strength of the connector has been improved, as well as some changes have been made to the signal structure of the interface to ensure signal integrity (reducing the effect of crosstalk).
Devices with a PCIe 5.0 bus will not appear on the market today and not suddenly. On Intel server processors, , PCIe 5.0 support expected in 2021. However, the new standard will penetrate not only the high-performance computing sector. Over time, it will also be registered in personal computers.
Source: 3dnews.ru