On July 23rd, 2002 the PCI-SIG, the Special Interest Group responsible for PCI, PCI-X and PCI Express industry-standard I/O technologies, announced that its board of directors has approved the official public release of the protocol portion of the PCI-X 2.0 specification. The board also approved the posting of the ?release candidate? for the electrical portion of the PCI-X 2.0 specification to the PCI-SIG web site. Together, these two specifications provide all of the information that silicon and systems engineers need to begin their PCI-X 266 and PCI-X 533 product designs today. The electrical portion of the PCI-X 2.0 specification is in the final stages of validation to ensure that the specification meets rigorous engineering standards. The PCI-SIG will release the electrical portion upon completion of this validation process in the coming weeks. The PCI-X 2.0 specification defines two new versions of PCI-X add-in cards: PCI-X 266 and PCI-X 533. The first, PCI-X 266, runs at speeds up to 266 Mega transfers per second, enabling sustainable PCI bandwidth of more than 2.1 Gigabytes/second. PCI-X 533 runs at speeds up to 533 Mega transfers per second enabling bandwidth of more than 4.2 Gigabytes/second. Such throughput rates are more than sufficient to handle current applications while also supporting future high-bandwidth add-in card connections to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI, Serial ATA (SATA), InfiniBand, RAID and cluster interconnects for servers and workstations. "The notion of any card, any slot, anytime has arrived," said Tony Pierce, PCI-SIG chairman. "The PCI-X 2.0 specification demonstrates the PCI-SIG?s commitment to maintaining backward compatibility, while expanding the capabilities of PCI to meet future requirements. PCI-X 266 and PCI-X 533 offer an easy migration path for designers of high bandwidth applications who require maximum performance within a stable design environment." "PCI-X is established as the undisputed high-bandwidth interconnect standard for the server marketplace because it protects both the hardware and software investments already established with PCI," said Al Yanes, president of the PCI-SIG. "PCI-X 266 and PCI-X 533 boost bandwidth to levels that will support the industry?s fastest add-in card connections and preserve backward compatibility for years to come." PCI-X 2.0 leverages the protocol enhancements used in the widely adopted PCI-X 1.0 specification, such as byte counts and split transactions, enabling maximum operational efficiency with host bridges, PCI-to-PCI bridges and main memory. The PCI-X 2.0 specification also incorporates Error Checking and Correction (ECC?), ensuring end-to-end data integrity that is critical for the server market. Additionally, the bus-per-slot provided with PCI-X 2.0 delivers excellent fault isolation and improved performance guarantees for advanced levels of reliability. PCI-X 2.0 is also fully backward compatible with previous generations of PCI, which means that motherboard and system designers can immediately deploy products that accommodate existing PCI cards, while supporting present and future low-cost, high-bandwidth PCI-X 2.0 PCI-SIG Board of Directors Approve PCI-X 2.0 Specification for High-Bandwidth Local I/O 4 devices. By the same token, PCI-X 2.0 adapter cards will be able to plug into any PCI slot and operate at the maximum speed of that slot. This makes PCI-X 2.0 an ideal solution for corporate customers in the server and networking markets, who place a high priority on maximizing current technology investments. Source: PCI Special Interest Group