How is PCI Express different than PCI?

The PCI Express bus architecture sounds similar to the PCI bus architecture. What is the primary architectural difference between PCI and PCI Express?

A) PCI provides for higher throughput than PCI Express

B) PCI is a parallel bus architecture and PCI Express is a serial bus architecture

C) PCI has more communication lanes than PCI Express

D) PCI is a newer specification than PCI Express

E) PCI Express has way more letters than PCI

The answer: B) PCI is a parallel bus architecture and PCI Express is a serial bus architecture

Although it seems that a serial connection would provide slower throughput, it’s actually very different. PCI Express version 2.0 has a serial bus architecture that can send up to sixteen gigabytes per second between devices. Wow!

Want to know more? Watch “Expansion Slots.” The expansion slots are the most modular part of the PC motherboard, but what are all of these different standards? This module will walk you through the most popular expansion slot bus types, such as PCI, PCIe, and AGP. Some older technologies, such as AMR and CNR will also be detailed.