PCI-X, short for Peripheral Component Interconnect eXtended, is a computer bus and expansion card standard that enhances the 32-bit PCI local bus for higher bandwidth demanded mostly by servers and workstations.
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17 Facts About PCI-X
2.
PCI-X is in fact fully specified for both 32- and 64-bit PCI connectors, and PCI-X 2.
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3.
PCI-X added Message Signaled Interrupts, an interrupt system using writes to host-memory.
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5.
Intel gave only a qualified welcome to PCI-X, stressing that the next generation bus would have to be a "fundamentally new architecture".
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6.
The PCI-X interface was however briefly adopted by Apple, for the first few generations of the Power Macintosh G5.
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7.
Actual PCI-X branding only became standard later, likely coinciding with widespread availability of PCI-X equipped motherboards.
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8.
PCI-X revised the conventional PCI standard by doubling the maximum clock speed and hence the amount of data exchanged between the computer processor and peripherals.
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9.
PCI-X improves the fault tolerance of PCI, allowing, for example, faulty cards to be reinitialized or taken offline.
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10.
PCI-X is backward compatible to PCI in the sense that the entire bus falls back to PCI if any card on the bus does not support PCI-X.
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11.
Many 64-bit PCI-X cards are designed to work in 32-bit mode if inserted in shorter 32-bit connectors, with some loss of speed.
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12.
PCI-X is often confused by name with similar-sounding PCI Express, commonly abbreviated as PCI-E or PCIe, although the cards themselves are totally incompatible and look different.
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13.
The first is that PCI-X is a 64-bit parallel interface that is backward compatible with 32-bit PCI devices.
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14.
PCI-X has technological and economical disadvantages compared to PCI Express.
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15.
PCI-X buses run only as fast as the slowest device, whereas PCIe devices are able to independently negotiate the bus speed.
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17.
PCI-X slots take quite a bit of space on motherboards, which can be a problem for ATX and smaller form factors.
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