Arstechnica has reported that PCI SIG has finalized version 2.0 of the base specification for its PCI Express bus. PCI SIG is the body, which manages the PCI Express add-on card standard. This new release is a significant step forward as it doubles the signaling rate from 2.5 Gbps to 5 Gbps.
Some other major change that are part of the 2.0 specification include making the PCI interconnects more interactive. This means link speed of the PCIe slots are now dynamic means it can be continuously adjusted by software. This will help in the link reporting back changes to the PCI host and will allow for improved device, slot and interconnect management.
PCIe 2.0 remains compatible with PCIe 1.1, so older cards will be able to operate in machines that sport the 2.0 specification. The first company that is expected to take advantage of this fairly significant leap is Intel. The company is expected to release its first PCIe 2.0 supporting chipsets in Q2 2007.