Possible PCIe successor Gen-Z Reaches Version 1.0 Development Stage
Click here to post a comment for Possible PCIe successor Gen-Z Reaches Version 1.0 Development Stage on our message forum
RonanH
No Intel = No consumer products
Do we need more than what PCIe can deliver currently?
Looks like there are a few big scale computing companies in there though so might be something for the datacentre/supercomputer crowd maybe?
Barry J
I like anything that pushes technology it can only help improve desktop PC's in the long run. Would be nice if all PCIE connectors were all 16x we might not need it but if hardware suppliers
new they can access that maybe they will produce faster and better hardware....... or maybe not
Fox2232
Yes, we need more. Once we get PCIe 5.0, bandwidth will be good enough for you to buy APU system, and add another APU into PCIe slot as add-in-card.
Imagine buying 4C/8T APU with 2048SP, and then as time passes, you would add few 4C/8T APUs with 2048SP GPU each. One may need 140W CPU socket, but if one considers year at which we'll have PCIe 5.0 ... Maybe those will be just 95W APUs, and 95W Add-In-Cards.
With great PCIe bandwidth, it may be just question of time till we see secondary system memory. IIRC there are already few projects.
Maybe even GPUs using HSA memory in another slot. And that slot may be hosting RAM + SSD as large cache.
AcidSnow
I don't believe I've ever heard of Gen-Z. However it sounds like a great idea, and if it works royalty free, then that's a win-win. Because the savings will be passed on the the OEMs & consumers, hopefully lowering the cost of PC's in the future.
Kaarme
When I began to read the article and got to the point where royalty free was mentioned, I knew Intel wouldn't be aboard. Nvidia as well these days loves their restricted in-house technologies, so their participation was pretty much 50-50. I guess they judged that since Intel isn't interested, it will have no private consumer future, and in the pro market Nvidia already has their proprietary NVlink, so they wouldn't want their left hand to compete with the right hand.
Dragondale13
Great, now by the time I upgrade, the web will be filled with "Gen-Z is the way to go bro! Pci-E is dead!"
..and I'll be feeling left out 🙁 😛 😀 ...it's Pci-E 2.0 vs 3.0 all over again 😀 🙁!
warlord
Now Gen-Z, next should be Gen-Super and then Gen-GT (aka DragonBallZ -> Dragonball Super -> Dragonball GT), I love so much innovation without useful usage. Find me proper reasoning for this bandwidth existence in the foreseeable future. Really.
Fox2232
Not so much, this is like move from AGP to PCIe on graphics cards. But much more innovative.
Intel&nV are not participating from very specific reasons. This new thing is strong push towards HSA.
Early birds will have to support two platforms and invest resources with low return rate.
Intel & nV will eat legacy clients while AMD will be pushing for future. (I think it will not be so close future.)
And they'll make leap once market is large enough/proven.
LiviuTM
This new interconnect standard is about addressing servers & High Performance Computing issues (same as CCIX, or OpenCAPI where Nvidia is also involved), not directed to consumer products.
Intel has its own standard, Omni-Path, and s not involved in any of these 3 interconnect standards consortia. For some details, see https://www.csm.ornl.gov/workshops/openshmem2017/presentations/Benton - OpenCAPI, Gen-Z, CCIX- Technology Overview, Trends, and Alignments.pdf
-Tj-
I thought pcie4 and pcie5 was the successor?
Dragondale13
What!? those memories were even worse! 🙁:(:(
[spoiler]I'm kidding obviously. 😀[/spoiler]
vbetts
Moderator
Maybe in data centers. Consumer grade stuff, no not really.
tunejunky
reminds me of when people were skeptical of hdmi connectors on monitors.
obviously no-one any of us knows has a direct application for this standard.
but i remember when i didn't have an application (that was worth a darn...at first) for the Apple II.
to use a cheesy line from "field of dreams"...."build it and they will come".
wavetrex
This might be the dawn of the truly modular computer.
Need more CPU power ? Stick in another CPU "unit"
Need more GPU and higher frame-rates for games ? Add more GPU units
Need more I/O for your amazing media server ? Stick in an I/O unit with extra SATA/M.2 etc.
Need application specific accelerators ? Plug those in.
One slot to rule them all !
(And it should be hot swappable... adding or removing units without even bothering to power down or reboot)
I can already picture some crazy high-end motherboard that has 8 slots of this thing, all identical, and could go from 1 APU - 1 I/O to a multi-core beast with 6 CPU's or to a massive gaming/processing machine with 4 GPU's, 2 CPU's, 1 I/O and 1 VR/Sensor Interface board and next day swapped to a 4 I/O video-station / 4 CPU for some massive 4K encoding power.
I can only dream 😉
Aura89
Intel doesn't matter when it comes to this.
If Intel never supports it in their chipsets, then 3rd party controllers will step in, increasing the price of their boards, to make sure it works. It might be slower then intended because it's not accepted by the chipset directly, but it'd still happen, and then Intel motherboards would be that much more expensive.
The biggest and really main issue would be Nvidia, since it's going to be the adoption race of cards that'll determine if this goes further. And since Nvidia is as of yet on board, that'll be quite a chunk of devices that will be fitted with PCI-Express instead.
Honestly, we don't need all PCI-Express connectors to be 16x (ultimately would be a waste of materials and cost), what would be better would be for all PCI-Express connectors, except for the 16x slots, to be open ended and allow any size of card to be put there, albeit at lower speeds if the card needs more. This is already a thing, just not a universal thing.
https://lnv.i.lithium.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/65335iC26DD4175A62FA36?v=1.0
https://img.purch.com/r/600x450/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS9TLzcvMjU2MzI3L29yaWdpbmFsL3BjaWUuanBn
There's even the option to put in the 16x slot clip (the back piece that holds the card in place)
http://images.hardwarezone.com/upload/files/2010/06/10cc34a428.jpg
tsunami231
maybe by time i do new build this will be the new standard?
FlyBy
Nice !
Glidefan
Moderator
I do think that it's nice for this to get some traction for being open. It means lower cost in theory (unless the cost to implement the new controller is high).
On the other hand, this makes me think that perhaps not all Gen-Z implementations will be created equal if companies are open to make their own implementations to the bus, with compatibility being all over the place.
