Table of Contents
PCIe Topology
Link and Lane
Figure 1. PCIe link
A lane represents a set of differential signal pairs (one pair for transmission, one pair for reception). The data rates supported by each lane are listed in Table 1.
Table 1. PCIe Signaling Characteristics
Data Rate | Modulation | Encoding | Effective Data Rate (Per-Lane) | Base Specification Revision | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6.x | 5.x | 4.x | 3.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | ||||
2.5 GT/s | NRZ | 8b/10b | 2 Gbit/s | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
5.0 GT/s | NRZ | 8b/10b | 4 Gbit/s | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
8.0 GT/s | NRZ | 128b/130b | ~8 Gbit/s | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
16.0 GT/s | NRZ | 128b/130b | ~16 Gbit/s | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
32.0 GT/s | NRZ | 128b/130b | ~32 Gbit/s | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
64.0 GT/s | PAM4 | 1b/1b | 64 Gbit/s | ✔ |
As shown in Figure 1, a link can support multiple lanes (The number of lanes supported by each revision is listed in Table 2). So the data rate of a link is calculated by: $$LinkRate = LaneRate * LaneNumber$$
Table 2. The number of lanes supported by each revision
Revision | x1 | x2 | x4 | x8 | x16 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
6.0 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Fabric Topology
PCIe Layer
Transaction Layer
The transaction layer is responsible for:
- assembling and disassembling the TLP..
- managing credit-based flow control.
It supports four address spaces:
- Memory Space
- I/O Space
- Configuration Space
- Message Space
Data Link Layer
The data link layer is responsible for:
- link management
- data integrity
Physical Layer
The physical layer includes all circuitry for interface operation, including:
- driver and input buffers
- parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel conversion
- PLL(s)
- impedance matching circuitry
1.5.4 Layer Functions and Services
Notes
References
Further Reading
- PCI Express® Base Specification Revision 6.0