News PCI Express Over Cable Opens Door For Modular PCs

From ExtremeTech:

SEATTLE--Texas Instruments has successfully demonstrated running PCI Express over cabling reserved for Gigabit Ethernet, the first step toward a modular desktop PC.

In a week's time, TI will begin sampling an unspecified PCI Express-to-PCI bridge chip, which will include the ability to transfer data over a Cat6 cable, TI executives said. Cat6 cables use four pairs of twisted copper wire, and is the cable usually chosen for Gigabit Ethernet connections.

In the demonstration made Tuesday at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) show here, TI combined the PCI Express bridge chip with its own PCI7621 I/O controller that interfaces to smart cards, IEEE 1394, CardBus, and other small form factor flash cards. The chip routed a x1 PCI Express channel over the cable.

By separating the I/O from the computing element, TI's new chip could transform the way desktop PCs are designed.

Instead of a single PC chassis containing a CPU, storage, video card, and I/O devices, the new chip could enable an I/O module sitting close to the user, complete with inputs for a keyboard, mouse, flash cards, and other incidentals, TI representatives said. The redesign could have a more profound impact on the PC industry, which is already looking to consumer electronics devices for inspiration.

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It certainly has modding potential - you could design some real "off the wall" designs if everything is distributed and only connected by a piece of Cat6.

 

just think. Monitor and keyboard etc in one room. noise in another.

 

Thats fine until you want to change a CD, reset it, put in a disk etc.

 

Who says you wouldn't just have the processing and power modules in one room and the input/control devices in another?

 

I REALLY like this idea. I've always thought of how I could modularize my pc so that my i/o and removable media were next to me and the rest of the pc (aka, the noise) would be in the closet or somewhere out of hearing range. Didn't IBM do something similar a few years ago though? For some reason I recall seeing a 2-piece pc designed by IBM that failed worse than OS/2..

 

hehe i like that idea, but the only thing is, i've beaten them to it. i'v got a keyboard mouse monitor and usb hub next to me, and the rest of the box is sitting 10 feet away on the other side of the room hidden away under the table. Only thing is that there are 5 pc in the room so much for noise then...

next project a major switching box so i can choose which monitor accepts output from whatever pc.

5 pc's -> one switch -> 5 switches to choose input.

 

Well, the way things look like there going, the ~100M limit on an ethernet cable isn't going to be enough.
It'll be keyboard here, box back at the powerplant.

 

100M? Um, it say GIGABIT CABLING so 1000M

 

I have an old IBM Aptiva. It sounds like what you’re talking about. It’s a great computer. I will post a few pics when I get home. There was this little space saving spring-loaded thing that the CD drives and the floppy drive and the power button was on. This little module sits underneath the monitor. There was a long SCSI cable that goes to the main part of the Aptiva.

Edit: Found a pic online! http://mywebpages.comcast.net/joeyr76/pc/S78.jpg

 

YES! That's what I'm talking about! Too bad about them failing though, I always thought that was a damn good idea they had.

 

Then have the CD drive in the same room as you? SATA ATAPI!

 

We had an Aptiva here too.

I say had because we gave it up after a long struggle with trying to make it 98 worthy, and ultimately deeming it not worth it.

Been trying forever to replicate it, or hack open that CD/floppy bay to switch the drives [ as the internal cables go to an IDE port and standard floppy port. ]

But this.. This will be pimp-tastic. It'll make projects like this no longer necessary.

 

LOL i broke my CD/Floppy thing trying to upgrade the drives to. there is a screwdriver holding it open. I upgraded it by increasing memory to 128mb and installed XP Pro on it. It runs great. slow.... but great.

 

Small form factors are already simi-modular, most mobo's no support USB booting, which includes the super tiny toshiba cd burner and this little critter:
For a modular PC you can't expect too much speed, for me USB 2.0 is plenty.

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Oh, the above thing, slightly larger than a floppy, is a 20gb hard drive.

 

i had a customer bring one of them in once.....after i stopped laughing, i fell in love with it..told them it was unrepairable, and 2 years later its happily part of my home gaming lan.
i now have a family of aptivas...inc original 17in monitors WITH Bose speakers!! none have original internals though..

 

i could have sworn the limit for ethernet was 2.5km (with repeaters)