Monday, August 11, 2008

AGP Slot



There are seven different speed levels for PCIe, and they are designated 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X,
12X, 16X, and 32X. These designations roughly correspond to similarly designated AGP
speeds. The slots for PCIe are a bit harder to identify than other expansion slot types because
the slot size corresponds to its speed. For example, the 1X slot is extremely short (less than an
inch). The slots get longer in proportion to the speed; the longer the slot, the higher the speed.
The reason for this stems from the PCIe concept of lanes, which are the multiplied units of
communication between any two PCIe components and are directly related to physical wiring
on the bus. Because all PCIe communications are made up of unidirectional coupling between
devices, each PCIe card negotiates for the best mutually supported number of lanes with each
communications partner.

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