Will PCIe boards support PCI slots

[calak]

They used to put 4 PCI slots + 2 PCAT slots on boards for the first year or two of that switchover. Anyone know if PCIe + PCI will be similar?

What about an AGP video slot in addition to a PCIe-16 video slot, to carry over an AGP video card and maybe provide dual-monitor support?

Is anything known either way about current-card/about-to-be-legacy-card support under PCIe?

 

[TechJunkie95242]

The motherboards will have both PCI-e and PCI slots I am not sure of a AGP slot though. Most likely they will have one.

 

[MrMaster]

What is PCAT? I remember the ISA to PCI conversion. In fact I have a whole box of ISA cards yet but I don't remember PCAT.

 

[jrphoenix]

Originally posted by: calak
They used to put 4 PCI slots + 2 PCAT slots on boards for the first year or two of that switchover. Anyone know if PCIe + PCI will be similar?

What about an AGP video slot in addition to a PCIe-16 video slot, to carry over an AGP video card and maybe provide dual-monitor support?

Is anything known either way about current-card/about-to-be-legacy-card support under PCIe?

I've seen some roadmaps and it really depends on the vendor. Some boards will have pci-e x 16 (graphics card) slots and regula pci slots. Some will have pci-ex16 and x1 and pci slots... There is an upcoming board (previous post from anandtech contributor) that will have both pci-e and agp?

Look for the vendor that has what you want.

 

[calak]

Yes, ISA is what I meant not PCAT, sorry. I'm asking how much of a break PCI to PCIe going to be, and hoping there will be some legacy support - that's PCI now believe it or not - during this transition. ISA to PCI had dual-capability for a while so you could accessorize ahead.

Frankly, I'm surprised that there hasn't been more discussion of this given the interest in things like the ATI 9800 and such. If one of those cards was in my price range I'd want it to last a while, but if PCIe mboards don't have any AGP slots, an AGP 9800 is dead-ended on its current motherboard for all intents and purposes. Either that or you have to continue to upgrade your system around PCI-AGP while everything else is going PCIe.

I like PCI-AGP, but if the whole industry is moving to PCIe, as it seems it is, then every upgrade has to be considered in that context.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yeah, its all but guaranteed that there will be boards that support PCI and PCI-E. In fact the first boards will have the PCI and PCI-E slots basically set how the current PCI slots are. The PCI-E slot will just sit on the outside of the PCI.

Here's a link to a diagram:
Text

 

[calak]

"There is an upcoming board (previous post from anandtech contributor) that will have both pci-e and agp?"

I can't find the post, but that sounds good.

What I'd like most of all is PCIe-16 along with an AGP slot and both useable simultaneously, thereby providing not only legacy (AGP) support, but also dual monitors. I'm guessing that is too much to hope for.

If boardmakers support AGP under PCIe that would be good. If not, I'm afraid any AGP video card purchase is off the table for me.

 

[calak]

You know, that PCIe hot-swap for peripherals looks cool. I don't even know how I'd want to use it, but I like it anyway.

I'm heartened that there will be PCI support on PCIe motherboards.
AGP would be even better.
Simultaneous PCIe-16 + AGP would be the best.

 

[ForceCalibur]

Yes. There are boards with everything on it. AGP, Pci-express, pci, blah blah blah.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/editorial/display/pci-express_2.html

 

[darkswordsman17]

It wouldn't make much sense for mobo manufacturers to not have boards with both for a while because they should be able to actually run the AGP and PCI on the PCI-E bus and the only limiting factor would be their slots. Yeah VIA is the one who is making a chipset for multiple inputs. I believe that Intel is going to try to push a straight to PCI-E and SIS was going to follow that route. I remember reading an article saying that VIA was the only one who was going to be making a chipset to support both the new and old. Hopefully this isn't the case though.

As for the hotswapping, basically there will be a box the goes into the slot and that has a slot exposed to the outside of the case in the opening and so you'll be able to just plug something into it without having to open the case and everything.

 

[First]

Yes, I have personally seen a motherboard with several PCIe 1X slots and several 32-bit PCI slots for those that still want to use their old PCI cards. Those motherboards come with one PCIe 16X slot (the replacement for AGP 8X).

 

[calak]

Looks like a consensus that PCIe will, at least initially, support PCI slots in addition to the low-end PCIe-1x. Your visual confirmation pretty much seals that.

The big question remaining is will motherboards support an AGP video slot in addition to PCIe-16 video? That one AGP slot is probably as costly as all of the PCI cards put together in most machines.

Is that a production board you've seen? I know that they're due any day now.

 

[buleyb]

Originally posted by: MrMaster
What is PCAT? I remember the ISA to PCI conversion. In fact I have a whole box of ISA cards yet but I don't remember PCAT.

Yeah, not sure I know that one...there was the ISA/PCI/MSA, but PCAT is news to me

EDIT: Funky...I only saw the first 3 posts...man, this new forum software is wacky

 

[Bar81]

Originally posted by: calak
Looks like a consensus that PCIe will, at least initially, support PCI slots in addition to the low-end PCIe-1x. Your visual confirmation pretty much seals that.

The big question remaining is will motherboards support an AGP video slot in addition to PCIe-16 video? That one AGP slot is probably as costly as all of the PCI cards put together in most machines.

Is that a production board you've seen? I know that they're due any day now.

As has been stated several boards have been demoed with PCI-E x1 slots and they sit next to the PCI slots so that you can use either. I'm pretty sure I've seen pictures from trade shows.

The only chipset I know of that supports a dual AGP/PCI-E x16 implementation is the upcoming VIA chipset for P4 (and possibly one for A64?) All other upcoming chipsets have either an AGP or PCI-E x16 slot, not both.