PCI 2.0 vs 3.0 — See the differences here

PCI 2.0 vs 3.0

When you search for PCI 2.0 vs 3.0, you are probably looking to know the differences between them.

In this post, I will share with you the differences between the two of them.

By the end of this post, you should be able to put the PCI 2.0 and 3.0 side by side and know their differences, and possibly explain them to someone else.

First off, let’s get to find out what the acronym PCI represents.

PCI is an acronym for peripheral component interconnect.

These are primarily the graphics specifications for gaming on your computer.

PCI 3.0 has a bandwidth of 16 gigabits per second, while PCI 2.0 has an 8 gigabits per second bandwidth. However, the real transfer rate is not this.

For PCI 3.0, it’s about 1 Gigabit per second (actually 985 MiB/s) and for PIC 2.0, it’s around 0.5 Gigabit per second (actually 498 MiB/s).

It was in 2007, that the 2.0 was released.

It has a transmission rate of 1–5 billion per second.

Each lane has a capacity of 500 megabytes per second.

A 32-lane board has a transfer rate of 16 gigabytes per second.

3.0 was released in 2010.

It has a transfer rate of up to 8 billion per second.

Each lane will transmit data at a rate of 984.6 megabits per second.

A 32-lane board can pass 31 gigabytes per second.

The key distinction between PCI 2.0 vs 3.0 is speed.

But let me breakdown the differences categorically so you see:

PCI 2.0 vs 3.0

  • PCI 3.0 has a maximum transfer rate of 8.0 GT/s, while PCI 2.0 has a maximum transfer rate of 5.0 GT/s.
  • The 128B/130B encoding is used in the PHY layer of PCI 3.0. PCI 2.0, on the other hand, uses 8B/10B encoding.
  • During the Link training process, PCI 3.0 uses a co-efficient-based Dynamic Link Equalization phase. However, it is not present in PCI 2.0.
  • PCI 3.0 and PCI 2.0 have different compliance trends.
  • For PCIe 3.0, the Tx must pass two checks. The first is a PCIe 2.0-style electrical exam. The preset test then checks that the Tx de-emphasis and pre-shoot for all Tx equalization settings or presets are within the limits.
  • During TX compliance testing, PCI 3.0 has an extra package loss test and a few more Jitter checks (DDJ, etc.) than PCI 2.0.
  • In contrast to PCI 2.0, the Receiver Jitter Tolerance Test is more difficult for PCI 3.0.
  • Increased Bandwidth In comparison to PCI 2.0, sampling PCI 3.0 signals necessitates the use of oscilloscopes.

Have some more differences between PCI 2.0 vs 3.0 that you wish to be included here?

Simply leave a comment and the list will go on and on.