After many years of slow development and support for external PCI-Express device, the PCI Special Interests Group (PCI-SIG) announced this week the availability of the PCI-E external cable specification revision 1.0. Cables will be developed for all PCI-Express link widths (including x1, x4, x8 and x16) and external devices will be able to use signalling rates of up to 2.5 gigatransfers per second (GT/sec), possibly doubling to 5 GT/sec later on. The speeds are limited to the host, the adapter and the cable but according to the specification's outline, the future looks promising. External PCI-Express products are expected on the market in less than a year.
"This specification helps the industry create new products that will take PCIe technology out of the box – enabling PCIe solutions for IO expansion drawers, external graphics processors, tethered mobile docking, communications equipment and embedded applications," said PCI-SIG chairman Al Yanes.
News source: DailyTech
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