IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and Compaq Computer Corp are today expected to unveil the details of a proposed upgrade for Intel’s PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect bus, which currently runs at speeds of 66MHz. The three companies have got together to design new circuitry for the internal bus, which carries instructions between the computer’s processor chip and peripherals such as the memory or hard disk. Named PCI-X, the upgrade would speed up bus circuitry to operate at 133MHz. While representatives of the three companies remained tightlipped about the exact specification of PCI-X, industry rumors were quickly circulating about the significance of the announcement and in particular the reaction of Intel, which invented PCI back in 1991 – although control over the technology has since passed to the PCI Special Interest Group. The prevalence of Intel’s processors gives the company a huge say over how the internals of a PC are designed. The fact that IBM, Compaq and HP have left the chip giant out of the development loop is a strong indication that not everyone wants Intel to wield such power. A fact further backed up by the news that Compaq, IBM and HP reportedly began working together a year ago when they discovered Intel was developing its own, proprietary new bus. Sources said that the companies believed Intel would seek royalty payments from other component makers that use its new technology. Robert Magnate, a spokesperson for Intel, told ComputerWire that Intel hadn’t confirmed anything about a next-generation bus, and added that the chip giant had done its best to work, alongside other vendors, within the PCI SIG to push the PCI standard forward. There has been no mention of a proprietary bus system, he said. He did however, confirm that the details of the proposed PCI-X specification had been handed over to Intel for review. Asked whether or not Intel viewed the news as good or bad he said: I don’t know, we can’t say anything until we’ve sat down and had a good look at the spec. Then we can decide. Meanwhile, a source at Hewlett-Packard Co’s Enterprise Systems Group, the group within HP that’s been working on the spec, described the forthcoming announcement as very significant. He told ComputerWire that an internal draft of a press release had been circulated around the three companies and that an announcement would be made next week, most likely Tuesday. A spokesperson for the PCI SIG said it had not yet received any proposals for review. But she added that it was very common for the SIG to be the last in line to hear about new standards. Companies can get together and work on specifications for months before they finally reveal them to the group, she said. The spokesperson added that Compaq, IBM and HP would have to work quickly to get the proposals to the SIG in time for the next meeting of the PCI steering committee in December. At the end of last month, eleven companies including Compaq, IBM, Dell Computer Corp and Toshiba Corp, proposed a Mini PCI for mobile devices to the PCI SIG. The proposal won only guarded approval from Intel (CI No 3,484).
