Expansion Slots

Question 1

What is PCI?

Answer 1

Peripheral Component Interconnect bus architecture, introduced by Intel in the early 1990s, and released into the public domain, making it very popular very quickly

Question 2

What was the original bus size and speed of PCI?

Answer 2

32 bits wide @ 33 MHz

Question 3

What is AGP?

Answer 3

Intel’s Accelerated Graphics Port, which is a specialized PCI port with a direct connection to North Bridge. Only used for video cards.

Question 4

What was the original bus size and speed of AGP?

Answer 4

32 bit wide @ 66 MHz.

Question 5

What were AGP’s advantages over PCI?

Answer 5

1. It resides on it’s own personal bus to North Bridge
2. Uses pipelining commands similarly to CPUs
3. Uses Sidebanding, esentially a second data bus to allow the video card to send commands to North Bridge while recieving commands at the same time (a kind of full duplex)

Question 6

What is system memory access and what does it do?

Answer 6

It’s a feature on AGP ports that allow video cards to use system RAM as an adjunct to the onboard video card RAM.

Question 7

What is PCI-X, it’s bus size and speed?

Answer 7

PCI Extended. is 64 bits wide and has 4 speed grades (Measured in MHz) PCI-X 66, 133, 266, 533.

Question 8

Can you install a PCI card into a PCI;X slot?

Answer 8

Yes, but it won’t operate at PCI-X speeds, as it is backwards compatible with both hardware and software

Question 9

How does PCIe differ from PCI?

Answer 9

PCIe is a serial device, unlike the parallel PCI device.

Question 10

Which bus does the PCIe share?

Answer 10

PCIe doesn’t share a bus: it has its own connection to North Bridge.

Question 11

What are the data transfer speeds of PCIe 1.0?

Answer 11

2.5 GBps

Question 12

Transfer speed of PCIe 2.0

Answer 12

5.0 GBps

Question 13

What is the most common PCIe slot size?

Answer 13

x16 (16 lanes or 32 wires, one sending one receiving on each lane)

Question 14

what are the transfer and data rates of PCIe 1.0a

Answer 14

per lane data rate of 250 MBps and 2.5 GTps transfer rate

Question 15

what are the transfer and data rates of PCIe 1.1

Answer 15

same as PCIe 1.0a, 250 MBps and 2.5 GTps

Question 16

what are the transfer and data rates of PCIe 2.0

Answer 16

500 MBps and 5 GTps

Question 17

what are the transfer and data rates of PCIe 3.0

Answer 17

985 MBps and 8 GTps

Question 18

what are the transfer and data rates of PCIe 4.0

Answer 18

1969 MBps and 16 GTps

Question 19

How many lanes can PCIe have?

Answer 19

Up to 32 lanes, although 16 is more common.

Question 20

What are the specs on the miniPCI connector?

Answer 20

32 bit, 33 MHz (Same as PCI) witth powered connections.

Question 21

what is the maxium power consumption for mini PCI cards?

Answer 21

2 W

Question 22

What are the connectors and number of pins for Type I mini PCI card?

Answer 22

7.5 x 70 x 45 mm or 5.5 x 70 x 45 mm and 100 pins

Question 23

What are the connectors and number of pins for Type II mini PCI card?

Answer 23

17.44 x 70 x 45 mm or 5.5 x 78 x 45 mm 100 pin

Question 24

What are the connectors and number of pins for Type III mini PCI card?

Answer 24

2.5 x 59.6 x 50.95 mm or 2.4 x 59.6 x 44.6 mm and 124 pin

Question 25

What is a CNR slot?

Answer 25

It’s a Communications and Networking Riser, a port used for specialized networking, audio and telephony equipment.

Question 26

What is an AMR and what replaced it?

Answer 26

Audio and modem riser, a card designed to have audio and modem cards plugged into it.

Question 27

What was the point of the CNR?

Answer 27

To allow for cost savings for MB manufacturers: they only had to certify the CNR card instead of the entire MB

Question 28

What are the specs on AGP 1.0? (APG 1x & AGP 2x)

Answer 28

266 MBps at 66 MHz and x1 strobe multiplier or 533 MBps at 66 MHz and x2 strobe multiplier

Question 29

What are the specs on AGP 2.0? (AGP 4x)

Answer 29

1066 MBps at 66 MHz and x4 strobe multiplier

Question 30

What are the specs on AGP 3.0 (AGP8x)

Answer 30

2133 MBps at 66 MHz and x8 strobe multiplier