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I'd like to achieve PCI-E Gen3 X16 duplex speed for my server file transfers. I thought about this and asked myself why not.

I saw cable connecting PCI-E slot and a PCI-E riser card. So I believe there is already a cable exists to connect PCI-E slot to another PCI-E slot. Now I guess I need some kind of connection protocol to work with PCI-E.

Anyone has knowledge about this?

ispirto
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2 Answers2

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A PCI-e bus is not the same thing as a PCI-e device. There would have to be custom circuitry on both sides, most likely a PCI-e card that supports high-bandwidth interconnects.

The interconnect protocol most likely to be of use to you is Infiniband (IB), which can run at 4-lane speeds up to 40gbits/sec.

This is not cheap by any means, but for a point-to-point solution, you can't beat it.

adaptr
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  • There is also Myrinet. – user606723 Dec 01 '11 at 15:35
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    Mellanox (and probably others) make 56Gb IB cards now. They support hardware RDMA, probably the fastest way to transfer data from one server to the other (some NFS implementations already support it, don't think any CIFS do though). – Chris S Dec 01 '11 at 16:11
  • I guess Myrinet is the way to go. 10gbps is very cheap. 40gbps is very expensive right now. Thanks for your answer. – ispirto Dec 02 '11 at 13:12
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That bus is not designed for machine to machine communications directly. You would need to use some sort of networking device to connect between the machines.

While there are PCI Express 16 network cards out there (gigabit and above), any of these solutions will incur overhead penalties, and you will not get the full speed of the bus.

Tevo D
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  • For the record, I'll go with Myrinet. Although I've found this product: http://www.magma.com/pcie_linkx8g2.asp You may need to check it out. – ispirto Dec 02 '11 at 13:13