Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI),
Peripheral Component Interconnect eXtended (PCI-X) and Peripheral Component
Interconnect Express (PCIe) slots on computer motherboard are used for
connecting peripheral devices.These
slots are used for connecting peripheral devices such as Network cards, Graphics
cards, sound cards, VGA cards, Modems, TV Tuner Cards, Disk controllers etc.
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI):
The first version of conventional PCI found in consumer
desktop computers was a 32-bit bus using a 33 MHz bus clock and 5 V
signalling, although the PCI 1.0 standard provided for a 64-bit variant as well. Conventional PCI slots use a data width of 32 or
64 bits, and a maximum bus clock up to 33 or 66 MHz.
Peripheral Component Interconnect eXtended (PCI-X):
Next, The PCI is replaced by PCI-X which has the maximum bus clock of a
PCI-X v1.0 slot is 133 MHz. However, the PCI-X bus specification is
backward compatible with the conventional PCI specs, so conventional PCI cards
which support up to 66 MHz bus clock can be installed in a PCI-X slot.
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe):
PCI Express (Peripheral
Component Interconnect Express),
officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard
designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus
standards. PCIe has numerous improvements over the older standards, including
higher maximum system bus throughput, lower I/O pin count and smaller physical
footprint, better performance scaling for bus devices, a more detailed error
detection and reporting mechanism and native hot-plug functionality. More recent revisions of the PCIe
standard provide hardware support for I/O virtualization.
The PCI Express slot is
available in versions of from 1 lane to 32 lanes and are called x1, x2, x4, x8,
x16 and x32. The slot and connector are different lengths for each version.
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