PCI_Express_Base_4.0

This chapter presents an overview of the PCI Express architecture and key concepts. PCI Express is a high performance, general purpose I/O interconnect defined for a wide variety of future computing and communication platforms. Key PCI attributes, such as its usage model, load-store architecture, and software interfaces, are maintained, whereas its parallel bus implementation is replaced by a highly scalable, fully serial interface. PCI Express takes advantage of recent advances in point-to-point interconnects, Switch-based technology, and packetized protocol to deliver new levels of performance and features. Power Management, Quality of Service (QoS), Hot-Plug/hot- swap support, data integrity, and error handling are among some of the advanced features supported by PCI Express.