More set backs for Intel. I can’t believe that their next gen Z490 chipset is going to lack PCIe 4.0 Support!
Taken from Tom’s Hardware … The transition to 10nm doesn’t appear to be Intel’s only problem: According to multiple sources we spoke to at CES 2020, many upcoming Socket 1200 motherboards will support PCIe 4.0, but Intel encountered problems implementing the feature with the Comet Lake chipset, so Socket 1200 motherboards will only support PCIe 3.0 signaling rates when they come to market.
Intel’s difficulty transitioning to the 10nm manufacturing process has hindered its ability to move to newer architectures, but it has also led to slower transitions to other new technologies, like PCIe 4.0. That’s proven to be a liability as AMD has plowed forward with a lineup of chips spanning from desktops to the data center that support the new interface, giving it an uncontested leadership position in I/O connectivity with twice the available bandwidth for attached devices.
Intel, on the other hand, remains mired on its 14nm chips and a long string of Skylake-derivatives. And while we’ve assumed the company wouldn’t move forward to PCIe 4.0 until it moved to a new microarchitecture, we were told by several independent sources, which requested anonymity, that Intel intended to add support for the interface with the Comet Lake platform. As a result, most iterations of Socket 1200 motherboards currently have the necessary componentry, like redrivers and external clock generators, to enable the feature.
The PCIe 4.0 interface comes with twice the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0, but that also comes along with tighter signal integrity requirements. Unfortunately, Intel reportedly ran into issues with the chipset and untenable amounts of jitter (we’re told the Comet Lake processors themselves are fine), thus requiring cost-adding external clock generators to bring the interface into compliance. In either case, the issues reportedly led Intel to cancel PCIe 4.0 support on the Comet Lake platform.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
