Roger Fingas
The PCI-SIG standards body has ratified version 0.9 of the PCIe 5.0 connection specification, which could have implications for future Macs, particularly the upcoming modular Mac Pro.
The standard supports bandwidth up to 128 gigabytes per second, and clock speeds up to 32 gigahertz, PCI-SIG says. That's twice the performance of PCIe 4.0, but since 4.0 was only launched in 2017, the organization expects both standards to remain around for some time. PCIe 5.0 will be backwards-compatible with earlier hardware.
A final specification is due to be ratified later in the first calendar quarter of 2019. Manufacturers frequently begin design work well before that point though, making it probable that the first PCIe 5.0 products will ship to end-users at some point in mid-2019.
The cost of stepping up to PCIe 5.0 may make its first adopters businesses like data centers, researchers, render farms, and high-end "server-grade" equipment. Many desktops and laptops will hold on to PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 for the foreseeable future.
The 2019 Mac Pro is slated to be "modular" but what that term means at present isn't exactly clear. PCIe encompasses more than just expansion slots, but offering PCIe 5.0 slots out of the box would help future-proof the computer, and potentially prove to the professional community that it's serious about meeting its needs.
Apple is also sometimes a vanguard of new connection technologies, being an early backer of USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt.
Less likely is PCIe 5.0 showing up in other Macs such as the iMac 4K or iMac 5K lines any time soon — and expansion slots for the pair certainly won't materialize. The company is already under fire for the growing cost of its products, which is hurting profits in markets like China.
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Sponsored Content
Christine McKee
Thomas Sibilly
-m.jpg)
30 Comments
Uh, PCIe 4 has barely made it out into systems and Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro will have PCIe 5? Why? Hardly anything will be available for it. They can wait until 2022 to support PCIe 5.
There isn't any IP for PCI-E 5.0 yet, so the chance of it coming up in this year Mac Pro is Zero.
Possible for 2020, but that is if Intel support it, so far nothing on its roadmap shows they have any urgency. Compare to AMD which is quick support PCI-E 4.0 and I expect them to be first with 5.0 as well. Likely in Zen 3 with DDR5 and PCI-e 5.0
The old Mac Pro only supported PCIe 2.0 and we find PCIe 3.0 graphics cards now available, so if Apple only supported 3.0, most people would be fine with that, so the older 4.0 standard would be still ahead of the pack.
"The company is already under fire for the growing cost of its products"
In the case of the mac, is it as much the inflexibility of options?
Onboard T2 drives, narrow spec'd RAM and touchbars may be very compelling options for many, yet for others can this discourage core upgrades like CPU/GPU where these 'extras' are only available with such...?
128GB/s is just insane, but for pros, I'd bet they would have a use for it.