Please help! PCIe panic

Orangeb

New Member
Dear People,

I was training to be a counsellor - got psychology degree and 80% of the counsellor traiNing, but lost heart in it. I have always been into computers, mobiles, tablets bla bla, even as an 8 year old kid - Atari 520 my Dad had! - That’s showing my age!

Seeing as I have not worked due to a bi-polar condition for a long time, I would like to TRY and get back into work somehow (although I‘m not sure how my silly brain would react to it. So, I have been looking into going in at the ’bottom’ as IT first line support. So, I was learning all kinds of stuff about OSI model etc, but someone told me I should get thre COMPTIA A+, as I don’t Have any IT support experience. I worked at HP back in 2007 doing virtual server configurations as the big companies requested them. But thats a long time ago now.

So I got this huge book on the COMPTIA, and am working my way through it. The trouble is I overthink everything, and straight forward stuff gets complicated, when it shouldn’t be - it’s like I look for a more complex answer, when there is none. For example, I was reading about Chips and Chipsets, and instead of just accepting that they are chips and chipsets that let the processor talk to the memory and other things, I complicate it, and start thinking, but what are in the chips or chipsets - tiny transistors etc. I then got it mixed up with the PCIe stuff, as I thought it looked like they Both seemed to do the same thing.

Could someone help with some definitions please? The book goes pretty quick, considering I am only at the start still. The term interface I have looked up as something like the boundary of where the communication starts between one thing and another.

From what I can tell, the “bus” definition is basically a pathway, that can be serial or binary - nowadays it seems to be mostly serial.

PCI and or PCIe I would say is the technology type behind communications - there are some other things on that page too like SATA. It dictates the number of lanes for communications, and the speeds of them - it’s on the 7th, fastest version of it right now. PCIe also exists as adapters and expansion Slots to plug in things like graphics cards etc. But then the books starts about 32bit expansion slots and 64 bit, and the maths behind that. I think because PCIe is a technology that enables communications, but also are physical adapter and expansion slots, it makes it tricky in my mind.

Chipsets do trip me up still - the book just says “they perform interface and peripheral functions for the processor“ I guess interface just means the boundaries of those

I read some more today and they are talking about PCIe things, and how

“PCIe uses the concept of lanes, which are the switched point to point signal paths between any two PCIe components . Each lane that the switch interconnects between any two interconnecting devices comprises a seperate pair of wires for both directions of traffic. Each PCIe pairing between cards requires a negotion for the highest mutually supported number of lanes. The single lane or combined collection of lanes that the switch interconnects between devices is referred to as a link.“

Now thats fine, if you understand mother board stuff. But at the moment, I don’t! Suddeny there are switches, and pairing between cards (no-one mentioned 2 cards at this point - we were talking about a concept of PCIe ideology, not 2 cards at once! Very confused, and i know this sounds a bit thick, but i really am at the beginning of this!!

Then is starts about widths and wire’s, and then “each PCIe slot has a 22pin portion in common towards the rear of the motherboard“ - I’m not sure how we are suddenly talking about pins at the back of the mother board. It seems to jump about in my mind!

Anyway, this has turned into a massive post - sorry about that. If someone could help with some of these definitions I would be grateful - or just tell me where I am going wrong, understanding wise.

Many thanks for reading,

Matthew
 
It’s just an interface, looking at it as evolution over time in computing breaks it down more easily.

Standard pci, half duplex shared bus
Pcie, full duplex dedicated bus

Not really unlike old hub networks that shared an interface (bus) at half duplex between hosts where now switched Ethernet networks full duplex to individual hosts.
 
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