What is the PCI Express (PCIe) architecture?

PCI Express architecture is an industry standard high-performance, general-purpose serial I/O interconnect designed for use in enterprise, desktop, mobile, communications and embedded platforms. It has many state-of-the-art attributes, including:
- PCI compatibility using the established PCI software programming models, thus facilitating a smooth transition to new hardware while allowing software to evolve to take advantage of PCI Express features
- A cost-effective, low-pin count interface offering maximum bandwidth per pin, reducing cost and design complexity and enabling smaller form factors
- Scalable bandwidth of 16 Gigabytes per second at its initial signaling rate of 2.5GHz with much higher transfer rates in the future using higher frequency signaling technologies
- Support for multiple interconnect widths via 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 32 lane configurations aggregated to match application bandwidth needs Support for new and innovative, hot-plug/hot-swap add-in card and module devices
- Unique, advanced features such as Power Management, Quality of Service and other native functions not available in other I/O architectures

Category PCI Express