First Looks At PCI-X, BTX, New Chipsets, And More

rsrsharma writes "AnandTech has some early bird Computex 2004 coverage up its sleeve. Included are the first pictures and partial specs of nVidia's NV45, the PCI-X (PCI-eXpress) successor to the 6800 Ultra, and ATI's PCI-X cards. Also shown are Intel's new 9xx line of chipsets and LGA-755 motherboards, BTX form factor (the successor to ATX) motherboards, and much more. I'm definitely looking forward to this stuff." Update: 06/01 01:08 GMT by T : Several readers have pointed out that PCI-X properly stands for "PCI Extended" rather than "PCI Express."

BTX you say?

[Grey Ninja]

This is actually the first I heard of BTX, so I immediately flipped to the last page and had a look at the board. I have to say that the thing that bothers me the most about it, is the apparent lack of expansion slots. I only saw one slot, which was probably PCI-X?

I sincerely hope that this does not mean the end of expansion cards. Because if it DOES, I am just going to say goodbye to Windows, and get a Mac. It defeats the main advantage of a PC if I can't upgrade whenever I see fit.

PCI Express x16 and AGP...

[(H)elix1]

Nice to see both PCI Express x16 and AGP 8X slots on board at least one [anandtech.com] of them. I'm looking to squeeze a bit more life out of my AGP based ti4200 before updating to one of the newer video cards in a year or so...

Insightful?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the article: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=2064&p=2

Upon closer look you'll notice that this particular card has a PCI Express x16 interface, but with no bridge chip. It looks like the rumors of a bridgeless NV45 were true.

I love how people on Slashdot are willing to plagiarize in order to gain a little karma.

Re:BTX you say?

[aliens]

I believe the boards are all "pico"BTX meaning they're built for Small FormFactor (SFF) PC's. Such as the one's Shuttle Makes [newegg.com]

Hence the lack of expansion slots.

And if you read through it, BTX is an Intel design not adopted by AMD yet. So I wouldn't worry about moving to Mac right now.

You got it. (1st one!)

[r00t]

The key PCI-X feature is "protocol tricks".
Some wait states are eliminated from the
protocol, providing a nice speed increase
for cheap.

Typically a PCI-X slot is also 64-bit and
can go to 66, 100, or even 133 MHz. The key
feature is the protocol change though.

PCI Express is indeed serial, with 1 to 32
serial links working together. (like RAID)

Re:PCI-X != PCI express

[Graff]

It's unlikely PCI-X will make it onto the average consumer level motherboard, but PCI-Express certainly will.

The PowerMac G5s [apple.com] have 3 PCI-X slots on their motherboards. So there are at least some consumer-level motherboards being produced with them, even if PCI-X isn't being adopted wholesale by the computer industry.

Re:ummmm....

[elasticwings]

I would hope that if you spend the amount of money that it costs for an Laserjet 4300. You would spring the extra money for the one with the network port. What would be the purpose of buying a Laserjet 4300 if you could only print as fast as a parallel port?

Re:PCI-X != PCI express

[j.bellone]

I believe that he said average consumer. The average consumer won't go near a Mac for obvious reasons that don't need to be stated once again.