PCI Express This is a bus that is used to connect various components to a desktop PC. It is used to connect video cards, network cards, sound cards, WiFi modules and other similar devices. Intel began developing this bus in 2002. Now the non-profit organization PCI Special Interest Group is developing new versions of this bus.

On this moment The PCI Express bus has completely replaced such obsolete buses as AGP, PCI and PCI-X. The PCI Express bus is located at the bottom of the motherboard in a horizontal position.

What are the differences between PCI Express and PCI

PCI Express is a bus that was developed based on the PCI bus. The main differences between PCI Express and PCI lie at the physical layer. While PCI uses a shared bus, PCI Express uses a star topology. Each PCI Express device is connected to a common switch with a separate connection.

The PCI Express software model largely follows the PCI model. Therefore, most existing CI controllers can be easily modified to use the PCI Express bus.

In addition, the PCI Express bus supports new features such as:

• Hot plugging of devices;
• Guaranteed data exchange speed;
• Energy management;
• Monitoring the integrity of transmitted information;

How does the PCI Express bus work?

The PCI Express bus uses a bidirectional serial connection to connect devices. Moreover, such a connection can have one (x1) or several (x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 and x32) separate lines. The more such lines are used, the higher the data transfer speed the PCI Express bus can provide. Depending on the number of lines supported, the grade size on the motherboard will be different. There are slots with one (x1), four (x4) and sixteen (x16) lines.

Visual demonstration of PCI Express and PCI slot sizes

Moreover, any PCI Express device can operate in any slot if the slot has the same or large quantity lines. This allows you to install a PCI Express card with a x1 connector into a x16 slot on the motherboard.

PCI Express bandwidth depends on the number of lanes and bus version.

One way/both ways in Gbit/s
	Number of lines
	x1	x2	x4	x8	x12	x16	x32
PCIe 1.0	2/4	4/8	8/16	16/32	24/48	32/64	64/128
PCIe 2.0	4/8	8/16	16/32	32/64	48/96	64/128	128/256
PCIe 3.0	8/16	16/32	32/64	64/128	96/192	128/256	256/512
PCIe 4.0	16/32	32/64	64/128	128/256	192/384	256/512	512/1024

If you need help choosing a video card, call us and we will help!

WiFi modules and other similar devices. Intel began developing this bus in 2002. Now the non-profit organization PCI Special Interest Group is developing new versions of this bus.

At the moment, the PCI Express bus has completely replaced such obsolete buses as AGP, PCI and PCI-X. The PCI Express bus is located at the bottom of the motherboard in a horizontal position.

What are the differences between PCI Express and PCI

PCI Express is a bus that was developed based on the PCI bus. The main differences between PCI Express and PCI lie at the physical layer. While PCI uses a shared bus, PCI Express uses a star topology. Each device is connected to a common switch with a separate connection.

The PCI Express software model largely follows the PCI model. Therefore, most existing PCI controllers can be easily modified to use the PCI Express bus.

PCI Express and PCI slots on the motherboard

In addition, the PCI Express bus supports new features such as:

• Hot plugging of devices;
• Guaranteed data exchange speed;
• Energy management;
• Monitoring the integrity of transmitted information;

How does the PCI Express bus work?

The PCI Express bus uses a bidirectional serial connection to connect devices. Moreover, such a connection can have one (x1) or several (x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 and x32) separate lines. The more such lines are used, the higher the data transfer speed the PCI Express bus can provide. Depending on the number of lines supported, the grade size on the motherboard will be different. There are slots with one (x1), four (x4) and sixteen (x16) lines.

Visual demonstration of PCI Express slot dimensions

Moreover, any PCI Express device can work in any slot if the slot has the same or more lines. This allows you to install a PCI Express card with a x1 connector into a x16 slot on the motherboard.

PCI Express bandwidth depends on the number of lanes and bus version.

One way/both ways in Gbit/s
	Number of lines
PCIe 1.0	2/4	4/8	8/16	16/32	24/48	32/64	64/128
PCIe 2.0	4/8	8/16	16/32	32/64	48/96	64/128	128/256
PCIe 3.0	8/16	16/32	32/64	64/128	96/192	128/256	256/512
PCIe 4.0	16/32	32/64	64/128	128/256	192/384	256/512	512/1024

Examples of PCI Express devices

PCI Express is primarily used for connectivity discrete video cards. Since the advent of this bus, absolutely all video cards use it.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 770 graphics card

However, this is not all that the PCI Express bus can do. It is used by manufacturers of other components.

SUS Xonar DX sound card

SSD drive OCZ Z-Drive R4 Enterprise

The PCI Express standard is one of the foundations modern computers. PCI Express slots have long occupied a strong place on any desktop computer motherboard, displacing other standards, such as PCI. But even the PCI Express standard has its own variations and connection patterns that differ from each other. On new ones motherboards ah, starting around 2010, you can see on one motherboard a whole scattering of ports designated as PCIE or PCI-E, which may differ in the number of lines: one x1 or several x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 and x32.

So, let's find out why there is such confusion among the seemingly simple PCI Express peripheral port. And what is the purpose of each PCI Express x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 and x32 standard?

What is the PCI Express bus?

Back in the 2000s, when the transition took place from the aging PCI standard (extension - interconnection of peripheral components) to PCI Express, the latter had one huge advantage: instead of a serial bus, which was PCI, a point-to-point access bus was used. This meant that each individual PCI port and the cards installed in it could take full advantage of the maximum throughput without interfering with each other, as happened when connecting to PCI. In those days the quantity peripheral devices There were plenty of cards inserted into expansion cards. Network cards, audio cards, TV tuners, and so on - all required a sufficient amount of PC resources. But unlike the PCI standard, which used a common bus for data transfer with multiple devices connected in parallel, PCI Express, when considered in general, is a packet network with a star topology.

PCI Express x16, PCI Express x1 and PCI on one board

In layman's terms, imagine your desktop PC as a small store with one or two salespeople. Old standard PCI was like a grocery store: everyone waited in the same line to be served, having problems with the speed of service with the limitation of one salesperson behind the counter. PCI-E is more like a hypermarket: each customer follows his own individual route for groceries, and at the checkout, several cashiers take the order at once.

Obviously, a hypermarket is several times faster than a regular store in terms of speed of service, due to the fact that the store cannot afford the capacity of more than one salesperson with one cash register.

Also with dedicated data lanes for each expansion card or built-in motherboard components.

The influence of the number of lines on throughput

Now, to extend our store and hypermarket metaphor, imagine that each department of the hypermarket has its own cashiers reserved just for them. This is where the idea of ​​multiple data lanes comes into play.

PCI-E has gone through many changes since its inception. These days, new motherboards typically use version 3 of the standard, with the faster version 4 becoming more common, with version 5 expected in 2019. But different versions use the same physical connections, and these connections can be made in four basic sizes: x1, x4, x8 and x16. (x32 ports exist, but are extremely rare on regular computer motherboards).

The different physical sizes of PCI-Express ports make it possible to clearly separate them by the number of simultaneous connections with motherboard: The larger the port physically, the more maximum connections it is capable of transmitting to or from the card. These connections are also called lines. One line can be thought of as a track consisting of two signal pairs: one for sending data and the other for receiving.

Different versions of the PCI-E standard allow different speeds on each lane. But generally speaking, the more lanes there are on a single PCI-E port, the faster data can flow between the peripheral and the rest of the computer.

Returning to our metaphor: if we are talking about one seller in a store, then the x1 strip will be this only seller serving one client. A store with 4 cashiers already has 4 lines x4. And so on, you can assign cashiers by the number of lines, multiplying by 2.

Various PCI Express cards

Types of devices using PCI Express x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 and x32

For the PCI Express 3.0 version, the overall maximum data transfer speed is 8 GT/s. In reality, the speed for the PCI-E 3 version is slightly less than one gigabyte per second per lane.

Thus, a device using the PCI-E x1 port, for example, a low-power sound card or Wi-Fi antenna, will be able to transmit data from maximum speed at 1 Gbit/s.

A card that physically fits into a larger slot - x4 or x8, for example, a USB 3.0 expansion card will be able to transfer data four or eight times faster, respectively.

The transfer speed of PCI-E x16 ports is theoretically limited to a maximum bandwidth of about 15 Gbps. This is more than enough in 2017 for all modern graphics cards developed by NVIDIA and AMD.

Most discrete graphics cards use a PCI-E x16 slot

The PCI Express 4.0 protocol allows the use of 16 GT/s, and PCI Express 5.0 will use 32 GT/s.

But currently there are no components that could use this number of lanes with maximum throughput. Modern high-end graphics cards usually use x16 PCI Express 3.0. It makes no sense to use the same lanes for a network card that will only use one lane on the x16 port, since the Ethernet port is only capable of transferring data up to one gigabit per second (which is about one-eighth the throughput of one PCI-E lane - remember: eight bits in one byte).

There are PCI-E SSDs on the market that support the x4 port, but they look set to be replaced by the rapidly evolving new M.2 standard. for SSDs, which can also use PCI-E bus. High-end network cards and enthusiast hardware such as RAID controllers use a combination of x4 and x8 formats.

PCI-E port and lane sizes may vary

This is one of the most confusing problems with PCI-E: a port can be made in the x16 form factor, but not have enough lanes to carry data through, for example, just x4. This is because even though PCI-E can carry an unlimited number of individual connections, there is still a practical limit to the chipset's bandwidth capacity. Cheaper motherboards with lower-end chipsets may only have one x8 slot, even if that slot can physically accommodate an x16 form factor card.

Additionally, motherboards aimed at gamers include up to four full PCI-E slots with x16 and the same number of lanes for maximum bandwidth.

Obviously this can cause problems. If the motherboard has two x16 slots, but one of them only has x4 lanes, then connecting a new graphics card will reduce the productivity of the first by as much as 75%. This is, of course, only a theoretical result. The architecture of motherboards is such that you will not see a sharp drop in performance.

The correct configuration of two graphics video cards should use exactly two x16 slots if you want maximum comfort from a tandem of two video cards. The manual at the office will help you find out how many lines a particular slot has on your motherboard. manufacturer's website.

Sometimes manufacturers even mark the number of lines on the motherboard PCB next to the slot

You need to know that a shorter x1 or x4 card can physically fit into a longer x8 or x16 slot. The pin configuration of the electrical contacts makes this possible. Naturally, if the card is physically larger than the slot, then you won’t be able to insert it.

Therefore, remember, when purchasing expansion cards or upgrading current ones, you must always remember both the size of the PCI Express slot and the number of lanes required.

1. Hello! Please explain the difference in throughput between the PCI Express 3.0 x16 and PCI Express 2.0 x16 interface. Nowadays there are still motherboards with PCI Express 2.0 x16 interface on sale. I'm with I will lose a lot in video performance if I install a new interface video cardPCI Express 3.0 on a computer with a motherboard with only a connectorPCI-E 2.0? I think that I will lose, because the totalbaud rate for PCI Express 2.0 it is - 16 GB/s, and totalPCI Express 3.0 has twice the data transfer speed - 32 GB/s.
2. Hello! I have a computer with a powerful, but not new Intel processor Core i7 2700K and a motherboard with a PCI Express 2.0 slot. Tell me, if I buy a new PCI Express 3.0 video card, this video card will work twice as slow as if I had a motherboard with a connector PCI Express 3.0? So it's time for me to change my computer?
3. Please answer this question. My motherboard has two connectors: PCI Express 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0, but in the connector PCI Express 3.0 new video card PCI Express 3.0 does not fit, the south bridge radiator is in the way. If I install a video cardPCI-E 3.0 in slot PCI-E 2.0, then my video card will perform worse than if it were installed in a PCI Express 3.0 slot?
4. Hello, I want to buy a slightly used motherboard from a friend for two thousand rubles. Three years ago he bought it for 7,000 rubles, but what confuses me is that it has a slot for an interface video card PCI-E 2.0, and I have a video cardPCI-E 3.0. Will my graphics card run at full capacity on this motherboard or not?

Hello friends! Today on sale you can find motherboards with a connector for installing PCI Express 2.0 x16 video cards, and PCI Express 3.0 x16. The same can be said about graphics adapters; there are video cards with an interface on sale PCI-E 3.0, as well as PCI-E 2.0. If you look official specifications interfaces PCI Express 3.0 x16 and PCI Express 2.0 x16, then you will find out that the total data transfer speed of PCI Express 2.0 is- 16 GB/s, and PCI Express 3.0 is twice as large -32 GB/s. I won’t go deep into the specifics of how these interfaces work and will simply tell you that there is such a big difference indata transfer speed is visible only in theory, but in practice it is very small.If you read articles on this topic on the Internet, thenyou will come to the conclusion that modern PCI Express 3.0 graphics cards operate at the same speed in PCI Express 3.0 x16 and PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots and difference in throughputbetween PCI-E 3.0 x16 and PCI-E 2.0 x16 is only 1-2% loss in video card performance. That is, it doesn’t matter which slot you install the video card in, PCI-E 3.0 or PCI-E 2.0, everything will work the same.

But unfortunately, all these articles were written in 2013 and 2014 and at that time there were no games like Far Cry Primal, Battlefield 1 and other new products that appeared in 2016. Also released in 2016 family GPUs NVIDIA 10 series, for example GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti video cards and even GTX 1060. My experiments with new games and new video cards showed that the PCI-E 3.0 interface has an advantage overPCI-E 2.0 is no longer 1-2%, but on average 6-7%. What's interesting is if the video card is of a lower class than GeForce GTX 1050 , then the percentage is less (2-3%) , and if on the contrary, then more - 9-13%.

So, in my experiment I used a video card GeForce GTX 1050 PCI-E 3.0 interface and motherboard with connectors PCI Express 3.0 x16 and PCI Express 2.0 x16.

N Graphics settings in games are maximum everywhere.

1. Game FAR CRY PRIMAL. Interface PCI-E 3.0 showed an advantage over PCI-E 2.0, since always higher by 4-5 frames, which is approximately the percentage 4 % %.
2. Battlefield 1 game. The gap between PCI-E 3.0 and PCI-E 2.0 was 8-10 frames , which in percentage terms is approximately 9%.
3. Rise of the Tomb Raider. Advantage of PCI-E 3.0 averages 9- 10 fps or 9%.
4. Witcher. The advantage of PCI-E 3.0 was 3%.
5. Grand Theft Auto V. The advantage of PCI-E 3.0 is 5 fps or 5%.

That is, there is still a difference in throughput between the PCI-E 3.0 x16 and PCI-E 2.0 x16 interfaces and it is not in favor PCI-E 2.0. Therefore, I would not buy a motherboard with one PCI-E 2.0 slot at this time.

One of my friends bought a used motherboard for three thousand rubles. Yes, it was once sophisticated and cost about ten thousand rubles, it has a lot of connectors SATA III and USB 3.0, also 8 slots for RAM, it supports RAID technology, etc., but it is built on an outdated chipset and the video card slot on it is PCI Express 2.0! In my opinion, it would be better to buy. Why?

It may well happen that in a year or two the latest video cards will only work in the connector PCI Express 3.0 x16 , and your motherboard will have an obsolete connector that is no longer used by manufacturers PCI Express 2.0 x16 . You buy a new video card, but it will refuse to work in the old connector. Personally, I have already encountered many times that the video card PCI-E 3.0 did not run on the motherboard. board with connector PCI-E 2.0, and Even updating the motherboard BIOS did not help.I also dealt with video cardsPCI-E 2.0 x16, which refused to work on older motherboards with the interface PCI-E 1.0 x16, although everywhere they write about backward compatibility.Cases when a PCI Express 3.0 x16 video card did not start on motherboards withPCI Express 1.0 x16, even more.

Well, don’t forget about the appearance of the interface this year PCI Express 4.0. In this case, PCI Express 3.0 will become obsolete.

PCI Express vs. PCI
News from the sound fronts

When can we expect PCIe sound cards?

Our readers are wondering about the delay in the release of PCI Express sound cards. Quote from the forum: “On new motherboards, regular PCI slots are in short supply, and the built-in sound is too mediocre. What are the manufacturers asking for? It seems like a lot of time has passed, where are the PCI Express cards?”

Indeed, the PCI Express specification was announced back in mid-2002. PCIe is intended to replace the PCI bus, which has been the generally accepted standard for expansion cards for more than a decade.

The main differences between PCI Express and PCI:

1. PCI Express is a serial bus, not parallel. The main advantages are reduced cost, miniaturization, better scaling, more favorable electrical and frequency parameters (no need to synchronize all signal lines);
2. The specification is divided into a protocol stack, each layer of which can be improved, simplified, or replaced without affecting the others;
3. The specification includes the ability to hot-swappable cards;
4. The specification includes the ability to create virtual channels, guarantee bandwidth and response time, collect QoS (Quality of Service) statistics;
5. The specification includes the ability to control the integrity of transmitted data (CRC);
6. The specification includes power management capabilities.

In reality, the only devices available on the market are video cards, where high bandwidth can be best used. The PCIe 16x graphics card slot has the highest speed and is connected to north bridge chipset. However, even the introduction of video cards came with big problems. Due to the lack of demand and very low performance gains compared to AGP, manufacturers suffered losses. And this is taking into account the complete lack of an alternative, since the AGP slot in the new PCIe chipsets was removed.

What about peripheral PCIe 1x slots for expansion cards, such as sound cards, modems, TV tuners, etc.? For them, not only are there PCI slots, but there are also no potential advantages for switching to a new bus. Is it any wonder that, having learned from the experience of the video card giants, peripheral manufacturers with more modest budgets and room for maneuver did not take risks and rush to produce PCIe cards. Still, PCIe 16x for video is one thing, but PCIe 1x for peripherals is completely different. Everyone remembers the fate of the defective connectors invented by Intel for audio/modems/network cards AMR, CNR, ACR.

User motivation is weakened by another factor. Modern chipsets and motherboards based on them offer extensive built-in capabilities: AC"97/HDA audio, 100 Mbit/1 Gbit network, RAID array, 8 USB2.0 ports. What else does the average user need? The category of enthusiasts will most likely be concerned about the presence of PCI slots on the motherboard, so as not to waste money. Especially if this applies to those devices that have enough PCI to spare. For sound there is also an alternative - USB and FireWire devices.

One can only feel sorry for the buyers who once again bought “megahertz” and found themselves in a situation with a lack of free PCI slots. But this is the inevitable fate of those who run ahead of the locomotive and recklessly buy something “for the future” - to pay for progress from their wallets and make an ulcer, swearing at problems, glitches and accusing large companies of a global conspiracy. PCIe adherents inevitably live in hopes that peripherals for the new bus will soon appear.

In the audio field, many had hopes for a new generation of Creative sound cards for PCIe. But the development of X-Fi for the PCI bus lasted more than 5 years. According to the manufacturer, attempts to adapt to PCIe caused technical difficulties, in particular with latency (sound delay time for buffering and processing), so cards are not expected to be released for the new bus in the near future. As for concerns regarding lost profits from potential sales of PCIe cards that do not yet exist, Creative is not keeping up with shipping X-Fi cards with the PCI bus to stores. For several months in a row, new cards have been in short supply and are selling out instantly.

On the technical side, a serial bus with the same frequency has higher latency than a parallel one, since there are no service signal lines, therefore, for audio tasks, where the most important thing is not the peak speed when transferring gigabytes, but fast access at small volumes, it is less suitable. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find comparison tests of PCIe 1x vs. cards on the Internet. PCI. Advertising claims about the superiority of the PCIe bus in everything are difficult to take at face value.

The independent encyclopedia Wikipedia says the following: “PCIe sends all control commands, including interrupts, along the same lines as data. The serial protocol cannot be divided into separate parts, so the latency is comparable to PCI.<...>The PCIe specification calls this interleaved data "data lanes"<...>such data does not necessarily reduce latency on small data packets transmitted over the bus."

Why some people consider PCI to be an obsolete interface for sound cards remains unclear. One thing is clear from the specifications: existing audio devices are not limited by PCI parameters. Usually, due to the lack of arguments based on reliable facts, the discussion develops into a religious war.

The leading English magazine for professional audio equipment, Sound on Sound, in its December 2005 issue, held a round table with representatives of pro-audio manufacturers and asked them similar questions. We are publishing part of the discussion in Russian translation ( full version on English language can be read on the website of the mentioned magazine).

PCI Express support

PCs with PCI Express slots have been available on the market for more than a year, but no PCI Express audio interface has been announced yet. What do you think about the capabilities of the new bus? Are new products with PCI Express support expected to be developed?

Matthias Carstens, RME: The PCI Express bus design is much more complex than that of PCI. Without a doubt, the pro-audio industry will need a year or more to research and produce samples. According to some sources, sooner or later ready-made solutions will appear.

PCI has everything you need for common needs. PCI Express will only be useful for professional multi-track use, when the bus is the limiting factor. For example, when using multiple HDSP MADI cards (each with 64 inputs/outputs), PCI Express is expected to help significantly. Therefore, it is not surprising that we have plans to port the MADI card to PCI Express, but the exact date is still unknown.

It's interesting to note that the first PCI Express Firewire cards are now available. First tests show that everything is working as usual. This is a good sign, because if PCI Express were completely unusable (for example, constant clicks despite high bandwidth), no one in the audio world would be surprised. Further tests with multiple Firefaces running at 192 kHz will be necessary to determine the limits of using PCI Express for audio purposes. If the tire is new fits better(and while all Firewire interfaces are based on PCI), the implementation of PCI Express will go faster.

Klaus Reitmüller, ESI: The PCI Express bus is at least as advanced and flexible as PCI or PCI-X. However, they are not compatible. This poses great difficulties for iron manufacturers today. In any case, PCI Express is definitely on ESI Professional's plans for future developments.

Milo Street, Echo: We are currently evaluating the PCI Express bus and will likely produce products that support it in the future. One potential advantage over PCI is quality of service and bandwidth management capabilities. In theory, this could allow for lower latency than PCI, which is already better than Firewire or USB.

Bret Costin, M-Audio: PCI Express promises increased bandwidth, but our users are so far quite happy with Firewire, USB and PCI products. Few of today's computers have additional PCI Express slots for audio, and there seems to be no support for PCI Express among sound chip manufacturers yet.

Phil Palmer, Edirol: We have no plans for PCI Express yet. Edirol/Roland led the development of USB interfaces for PC and Mac. We are still working closely with Apple on Firewire products. We feel that focusing on these technologies is The best way produce advanced products. The PCI Express protocol is still very new and, like all high-speed technologies, most likely, it was originally intended for some kind of continuous unidirectional data transfer, which is typical for disk controllers and graphics cards.

Mario Michel, Terratec: Terratec Producer PCI audio systems are always based on dedicated PCI controller chips, such as the VIA1712(24). Until today we have not heard of standard PCI Express audio controller chips, so we have no plans. In any case, PCI Express is needed mainly for a huge number of audio channels (such as 64 channels for MADI). We do not plan to release such devices in the near future.

Peter Peck, Yamaha: Yamaha cannot comment on any new developments that are underway. We are focused on developing mLAN products because our users' needs are more than met by the capabilities of the IEEE1394 bus. At the moment, there is no urgent need to rush to develop PCI Express, whereas there are already so many inputs and outputs via mLAN that it exceeds most requests for working with audio. However... never say never!

Jim Cooper, MOTU: As a leading audio interface manufacturer, MOTU
is seriously looking at all new interface technologies.

Death of PCI cards

With the announcement of PCI Express and the popularity of USB and Firewire interfaces, many musicians are beginning to assume that PCI sound cards are akin to an endangered species. How long do you think it will take for the PCI interface to completely disappear, as happened with the previous ISA standard?

Klaus Reitmüller, ESI: Currently, solutions on the PCI and PCI-X buses are the most cost-effective, both in the high-end segment, where many audio channels are required (for example, our MaXiO series), and in the device market entry level(products such as Juli@ or ESP1010). The PCI bus allows you to implement solutions with the highest price/quality ratio, which is not yet possible for USB or Firewire devices at the same price or with the same quality. Even for this reason, we will continue to see PCI audio devices for a long time into the future. Ultimately, PCI Express will replace PCI and further cement itself as a solution of choice over Firewire and certainly USB.

Jim Cooper, MOTU: Current MOTU systems on PCI are still more performant than Firewire or USB products, even on the second generation Firewire B (800 Mbps) and USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) buses. And our sales confirm this. PCI MOTU systems are still very attractive to many users - mainly high-end buyers who need highest quality ADC/DAC as possible, large number of channels, various interface formats, low latency and large-scale inter-interface mixing provided by our PCI424 series of products. We believe that PCI424 system is the most the best system, among those available for sale.

Bret Costin, M-Audio: More likely, it will be two years later. The performance of ISA and PCI sound cards was very different, since the latter had serious advantages over ISA. Today's benefits are not as significant, and as a result, promotion is not aggressive enough to introduce new technology.

Mario Michel, Terratec: Our developments are focused on USB 1.1/2.0 and IEEE1394 Firewire 400/800. We are not planning new PCI systems in the near future, and will be updating drivers and software for existing PCI products for a long time to come. We will sell our PCI systems as long as customers are ready to buy them, and I am confident that stable sales PCI devices will persist for the next 2-3 years.

Phil Palmer, Edirol: It's difficult to predict, but I believe that PCI products will continue to exist until manufacturers stop installing PCI slots in computers.

Matthias Carstens, RME: At least the next 5 years. IMHO.

Milo Street, Echo: The advantages of PCI Express over PCI for audio are not as significant as they were in the case of PCI's superiority over ISA. PCI will probably continue to exist until PCI slots disappear from motherboards (this took several years in the case of ISA), so the PCI audio interfaces purchased today will remain useful for a long time. However, we can expect that most manufacturers will eventually either switch to PCI Express or support only serial interfaces.

Peter Peck, Yamaha: In my experience, musicians prefer the flexibility of external devices - with the ability to transfer hardware to another computer without opening the case. Further, with the increasing use of laptops for music production, external devices will prove even more attractive to the buyer. This flexibility allows for longer service life external device compared with internal maps and earn big money. This is another factor that puts the PCI bus at risk.

Thanks to Sound on Sound for an interesting interview. Quite recently, the first appearance of the PCIe audio interface was reported, although only for Mac.

Digidesign offers two equal versions of its professional audio production system Pro Tools|HD. The manufacturer strives to ensure compatibility with the maximum possible number of computers equipped with PCI, PCI-X and PCIe buses, therefore it continues to produce existing version under PCI and announces new version under PCI Express.

A Pro Tools|HD PCIe version is expected to be released for the new Apple Power Mac G5 series. Because the new Power Mac G5 computers only have three PCIe slots, PCIe support for Pro Tools|HD is initially limited to a maximum of three cards. If you need a larger number of cards, you need to use Digidesign Expansion|HD ($2400), which is an expansion adapter from PCI, PCI-X, PCIe buses to 6 PCI slots in an external 4U module.

There is currently no option for the Windows platform. Digidesign plans to test and adapt the PCIe system for Windows computers once that platform becomes standard with at least three free PCIe slots in each machine. Until this point, you can use the PCI version without problems.

PCIe-compatible Pro Tools|HD systems are priced the same as PCI solutions. Digidesign offers special program upgrade from Pro Tools LE or Pro Tools TDM to Pro Tools|HD systems on PCI, PCIe buses. There is also a program for replacing the PCI version with PCIe.

The Digidesign website contains an interesting FAQ, from which you can understand that: Digidesign is not going to stop releasing the PCI version in the foreseeable future, PCIe solutions require the Digidesign Pro Tools HD software package version 7.1 to operate, it will not be possible to install more than three PCIe cards, expansion solutions PCIe-to-PCIe does not exist.

As a reminder, the Pro Tools|HD system in both versions with one HD Core (PCI) or Accel Core (PCIe) card provides 32 channels of input/output, 96 audio tracks and is offered at a price of $7995. Two cards offer twice the functionality for $10,995. Three cards will cost $13,995.

Congratulations to PCIe bus fans - the ice has broken!

Sound On Sound roundtable participant Matthias Carstens from RME commented on the situation after the announcement of Pro Tools|HD PCIe: “Naturally we will add PCI Express versions of existing products to our line.” In his opinion, the first announcements should take place next year at Frankfurt Musikmesse. “Using the latest FPGA technologies, we will be able to fully implement all existing RME developments. For example, HDSP 9652, where FPGA technology is fully implemented in the current model. This card does not have Steady Clock, and it also lacks phase inversion and the optional +6dB gain in the Total Mix. In the PCI Express version we can add these features. We will also make a PCI Express version of the existing HDSP interface card for Digiface and Multiface users, but it will be functionally identical to the PCI model for compatibility with external devices."

For now, RME has no plans to offer users the ability to upgrade PCI cards to PCI Express, and Mathias noted that the announcement of a PCIe product for the Apple platform did not affect his company's plans to bring PCI Express products to market. The reason why other manufacturers are not announcing PCI Express cards may be because related solutions for the introduction of a new bus, such as PCIe-to-PCI bridges, or off-the-shelf controller chips like the Via Envy24, which are widely used in mainstream PCI sound cards and interfaces. But there are no such solutions due to the lack of demand for them. We get a vicious circle, which, obviously, only market leaders can break; the rest will catch up. The word is up to the chip manufacturers.