PCI Express May Be Rapidly Adopted

In-Stat/MDR market research reports that PCI express technology should be hitting the market by the 2nd quarter of 2004.

Offering significant changes over PCI, PCI Express should be universally adopted among notebook and desktop PCs as well as workstations and servers, reports In-Stat/MDR. The high-tech market research firm expects that the increased performance, improved latency, and Quality-of-Service guarantees for data delivery in real time presented by the new architecture should lead to rapid adoption, with the first PCI Express chipsets hitting the market in volume in Quarter 2 2004.

PCI Express represents a second attempt to establish a universal Input/Output (I/O) architecture for PCs, servers, and workstations. The first attempt, PCI, is still the primary architecture for the vast majority of machines on the market. However, the need for increased speed in servers, as well as for graphics in higher-end machines, led to PCI offshoots, PCI-X and Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) respectively, which fragmented the PCI market. “Leading PC vendors all have PCI Express on their roadmaps, and its adoption in new PCs beginning in 2004 is certain,” says Brian O’Rourke, a Senior Analyst with In-Stat/MDR.

In-Stat/MDR has also found that:

For similar PC types, consumer segments will adopt PCI Express before corporate segments because of the lack of requirements for stable platforms, consistent configurations, or Information Technology (IT) qualification in the consumer segment

Desktop PCs will adopt PCI Express before notebooks due to shorter design cycles.

Intel is expected to be among the first to market with their PCI Express chipsets in the second and third quarters of 2004. NVIDIA, VIA and SiS are expected to release chipsets within one quarter of Intel’s release date.
The report, PCI Express in the PC: A Bigger Pipe for Desktops & Notebooks (#IN0301564MI), covers the penetration of PCI Express into the market for notebook and desktop PCs only (it does not cover workstations, servers or backplanes). The report includes quarterly percentage forecasts for PCI Express penetration into four PC categories through the fourth quarter of 2006: consumer desktop, consumer notebook, corporate desktop, and corporate notebook. It also includes annual shipment forecasts through 2007 for consumer and corporate desktops, and total notebook markets, along with PCI Express penetration into each of those markets. Brief profiles of leading chipset manufacturers are also included.

For more information, visit In-Stat/MDR at http://www.instat.com/.