Bandwidth Considerations for PCI Express 3.0 Designs
By Rita Horner, Technical Marketing Manager, PCI Express PHY IP
PCI Express (PCIe) is a well-accepted standard that is adopted across multiple markets. It is utilized in client servers, storage devices, and now more and more in switches and routers, for chip-to-chip, board-to-board, or even chassis-to-chassis interconnects. Due to PCIe’s multi-channel support and its capability to achieve higher bandwidth through aggregated solution, PCIe has become a big player across multiple market segments.
It is critical for PCIe designers to understand the challenges of meeting the industry’s increased demand in bandwidth that is resulting into higher data rates and higher densities. PCI Express 3.0 standard increased the supported data rate to 8 Gbps, which effectively doubled the previously supported 5 Gbps data rate. While the data rate was increased, no improvements were imposed on the channel, even though the channel experiences significantly more loss at 8 Gbps than at 5 Gbps. This was mainly done for ease of adoption, backward compatibility and to achieve high volume manufacturability.
To compensate for increased channel loss, PCIe 3.0 specification requires enhanced equalization in the PHY (Physical Layer). PCIe designers must better understand the channel bandwidth limiters so that they can effectively implement sufficient equalization in their next generation designs.
This article dives into the challenges of meeting increasing demands in bandwidth as well as the physical limitations that can constrict bandwidth. Understanding this issue, and why improved levels of equalization are necessary at higher data rates, will enable designers to implement more efficient PCIe 3.0 systems.