Intel announced at its developer forum in San Jose last week that
30 companies - including Agilent, Dell, National Semiconductor, NEC
and Philips - have joined the developer network for its PCI Express
bus technology, writes Antony Adshead.
The need for higher-capacity internal buses - the routes along
which data travels - is seen by industry watchers as the key to
creating faster Intel-based computer systems. The big-name support
for PCI Express should help to speed the plug-and-play technology
to market.
The aim of the developer network is to make the silicon components
available by the second half of 2003, with products incorporating
the standard shipping by 2004.
The network will provide a Web-based community for developers to
exchange information, tools and technical support in the creation
of PCI Express-based architectures.
Besides PCI Express, Intel has also flirted with the Infiniband
initiative, which seeks to create a complex "system area network"
linking processors, storage and peripherals via a switched
architecture. However, the company's enthusiasm for this initiative
appeared to cool earlier this year when it decided to hothouse the
PCI Express project.
Some manufacturers are using a third standard, the relatively
straightforward PCI-X, which is backwards-compatible with PCI.