Intel Busts PC Bottleneck
By C. Gino Ward
August 6, 2001 9:08 AM ET

An industry standards group has voted to use Intel's next-generation
input/output technology as the basis for its next serial interconnect -
promising computer users that future PCs will be able to handle oodles of
bandwidth.
The forthcoming standard from the group, the Peripheral Component
Interconnect Special Interest Group, represents the third major overhaul of
PCI - a typical interface between a PC's central processor and peripheral
devices such as network adapters - in almost 10 years. Members of the
PCI-SIG include Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Intel.
The initial version of the Intel-developed I/O technology, code-named
Arapahoe, will have a data transfer rate of 2.5 gigabits per second per pin,
scaling from on to 32 pins. Future versions are expected to hit 10 Gbps per
pin and beyond. Initial data rates will be at least 10 times as fast as the
more recent PCI-X spec.
"To the average end user, Arapahoe means that two to four years from now,
when you have more bandwidth available to the desktop, PCs will have a
plug-in bus that will not be the bottleneck," said industry analyst Cary D.
Snyder, of research firm MicroDesign Resources.
Other fast I/O technologies are vying to replace PCI, including InfiniBand,
which has garnered considerable industry support. However, whereas
InfiniBand is designed for "out-of-the-box" connectivity among servers,
Arapahoe is aimed at in-system expansion. Analysts said high-end servers
with Arapahoe-based technology will hit the market in about two years.