3GIO gets green light.
08/05/2001 9:35:11 PM MDT Albuquerque, Nm
By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO
New Bus Technology to replace PCI in 2003.
Voted on this last Friday, August 3rd, 2001, the 3GIO (3rd Generation Input Output) Bus Standard was accepted and will be in use in 2003.
The PCI-SIG (Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group) with members including Intel, AMD, and Microsoft decided on "Arapahoe" the code name for 3GIO which was led by Intel.
"The specifications are coming out over the next year or so," said Roger Tipley, the president of the PCI-SIG. "The early chips that would enable [Arapahoe] products should begin showing up in late 2003."
3GIO will replace PCI and will offer about 10 times the speed in which PCI can handle to process data to and from devices on the motherboards of computers. AMD, which is also a member of the PCI-SIG has their own new bus technology named HyperTransport, but they too voted on 3GIO.
HyperTransport is already going to be used in the upcoming Microsoft XBOX Video Game System which comes equiped with a Pentium III. AMD says HyperTransport is more of a cooperating technology to 3GIO and they see 3GIO as the natural evolution to replace PCI.
In speaking of 3GIO, Tipley said: "The transport will be different than what PCI is today, [and] the good news is that the software device drivers are compatible with what PCI is today. It doesn't have to change,". This means that although the hardware connection for 3GIO will be different, it will be easy to modify existing drivers to work with the new technology.
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