PCIePCIe

PCIe stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect Express. It is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard. PCIe provides a connection between a computer's motherboard and various peripheral devices such as graphics cards, solid-state drives, network cards, and Wi-Fi adapters. It has largely replaced older parallel bus standards like PCI and AGP due to its significantly higher bandwidth and lower latency.

The PCIe interface is designed with a point-to-point topology, meaning each device has its own dedicated connection to the PCIe root complex. This contrasts with older bus architectures where multiple devices shared a single bus. Data is transmitted serially in packets. The number of lanes, denoted as x1, x4, x8, or x16, determines the total bandwidth available for a specific slot or device. For instance, a PCIe x16 slot offers sixteen times the bandwidth of a PCIe x1 slot.

PCIe versions have evolved over time, with each generation offering increased bandwidth. PCIe 1.0, introduced in 2003, provided 2.5 GT/s per lane. Subsequent generations, including PCIe 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0, have progressively doubled the per-lane transfer rate, offering significant improvements in data throughput. This scalability allows PCIe to accommodate the ever-increasing demands of modern hardware. The standard is managed by the PCI-SIG (Special Interest Group).