One of the most comprehensive refreshes of Intel architecture will start rolling out this summer. The PCI Express bus will replace current I/O interfaces, such as PCI for device interconnects and AGP8X for graphics, on all servers, workstations, desktops, notebooks, and communications devices. According to Jim Pappas, director of technology initiatives at Intel, one of the main reasons for the switch is to enhance network performance.
"As servers move to 10GbE, PCI runs out of steam and PCI Express picks up," Pappas said. Initially, most desktops and servers are expected to include both PCI and PCI Express bus slots, phasing out the PCI slots during the next year or two. Another major foreseen benefit is the possibility of increasing to full-duplex GbE and 10GbE, which has not been possible with PCI-enabled boxes. The bus architecture is also designed for high-performance RAID on the motherboard, with SCSI, SATA (Serial ATA), and Fibre Channel for servers expected when the Lindenhurst chip set is unveiled this fall.