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Raspberry Pi PCIe Devices

pipci.jeffgeerling.com

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Re: Raspberry Pi PCIe Devices

#11

Post by Roritharr »

marcan_42 wrote: post #10
Uehreka wrote: post #4

I love a good “PCI Challenge”, where someone tries to see how much functionality they can wring out of PCI devices in a weird situation. Linus Tech Tips has a bunch of good ones: - How crazy of a device can you use with a server motherboard’s PCI hot-swap BIOS feature: https://youtu.be/YigN2mkQMPc - How many PCI extenders can you use with a high end graphics card: https://youtu.be/q5xvwPa3r7M

Ah, but have you ever run PCIe over 115200 baud serial? :) We did that for the PS4 hardware experiments, and that also involved a PCIe hotplug capable motherboard, as we had a PS4 southbridge patched in as a PCIe device on a normal PC, and every time we powered on the PS4 that was effectively hotplugging it. Fun times. These days PCIe hotplug is a consumer technology, it's called Thunderbolt (it's hotplug at the logi…

I remember that talk fondly, thanks for all the fun!

Re: Raspberry Pi PCIe Devices

#12

Post by jchw »

marcan_42 wrote: post #10
Uehreka wrote: post #4

I love a good “PCI Challenge”, where someone tries to see how much functionality they can wring out of PCI devices in a weird situation. Linus Tech Tips has a bunch of good ones: - How crazy of a device can you use with a server motherboard’s PCI hot-swap BIOS feature: https://youtu.be/YigN2mkQMPc - How many PCI extenders can you use with a high end graphics card: https://youtu.be/q5xvwPa3r7M

Ah, but have you ever run PCIe over 115200 baud serial? :) We did that for the PS4 hardware experiments, and that also involved a PCIe hotplug capable motherboard, as we had a PS4 southbridge patched in as a PCIe device on a normal PC, and every time we powered on the PS4 that was effectively hotplugging it. Fun times. These days PCIe hotplug is a consumer technology, it's called Thunderbolt (it's hotplug at the logi…

I read the first sentence of this post without noticing your username and thought, “wait, wasn’t that marcan?” — of course it was :) It’s a good time to rewatch that classic talk (and probably some other old ccc talks, there’s a wealth of great ones.)

Re: Raspberry Pi PCIe Devices

#15

Post by qwerty456127 »

IMHO PCIe (and SDRAM) should be the only interface exposed by a modern CPU. On-board graphics, audio and NICs usually are shitty anyway. SATA is not relevant any more - we better plug an NVMe SSD into PCIe (or get a controller if actually needed). Full USB-C (or ongoing USB-4) means Thunderbolt which is PCIe. Why waste silicon on anything but PCIe then?

Re: Raspberry Pi PCIe Devices

#17

Post by jychang »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #15

IMHO PCIe (and SDRAM) should be the only interface exposed by a modern CPU. On-board graphics, audio and NICs usually are shitty anyway. SATA is not relevant any more - we better plug an NVMe SSD into PCIe (or get a controller if actually needed). Full USB-C (or ongoing USB-4) means Thunderbolt which is PCIe. Why waste silicon on anything but PCIe then?

Power and convenience. Power usage by PCIe is a factor for mobile devices. And convenience, in that "shitty" onboard graphics, audio, and NICs are good enough for 90% of the use cases for most devices.

Re: Raspberry Pi PCIe Devices

#18

Post by viraptor »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #15

IMHO PCIe (and SDRAM) should be the only interface exposed by a modern CPU. On-board graphics, audio and NICs usually are shitty anyway. SATA is not relevant any more - we better plug an NVMe SSD into PCIe (or get a controller if actually needed). Full USB-C (or ongoing USB-4) means Thunderbolt which is PCIe. Why waste silicon on anything but PCIe then?

> On-board graphics, audio and NICs usually are shitty anyway.

Onboard graphics, audio and NICs are perfectly functional and more than enough for most people. Both in work environments and at homes. They've not been in a shitty category for years now. They won't break any records, but they will display websites at high resolution, play clear music, and provide more bandwidth than the link to the internet can handle.

Just look at the number of Lenovo's AIOs (and similar solitons) in offices.

> Full USB-C (or ongoing USB-4) means Thunderbolt which is PCIe.

USB 2 is a fraction of the price. (And power and board space)

Re: Raspberry Pi PCIe Devices

#19

Post by Latty »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #15

IMHO PCIe (and SDRAM) should be the only interface exposed by a modern CPU. On-board graphics, audio and NICs usually are shitty anyway. SATA is not relevant any more - we better plug an NVMe SSD into PCIe (or get a controller if actually needed). Full USB-C (or ongoing USB-4) means Thunderbolt which is PCIe. Why waste silicon on anything but PCIe then?

That feels really counter to what I see. Maybe five years ago I'd have agreed with you, but now-a-days on-board graphics, audio and NICs are way better than they used to be.

Don't get me wrong, I still run a discrete GPU for gaming, but for a lot of people onboard GPUs provide a good experience, and often much better power efficiency.

Re: Raspberry Pi PCIe Devices

#20

Post by detaro »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #15

IMHO PCIe (and SDRAM) should be the only interface exposed by a modern CPU. On-board graphics, audio and NICs usually are shitty anyway. SATA is not relevant any more - we better plug an NVMe SSD into PCIe (or get a controller if actually needed). Full USB-C (or ongoing USB-4) means Thunderbolt which is PCIe. Why waste silicon on anything but PCIe then?

Massively depends on the use case. Why waste board space, assembly complexity and power on PCIe when a SoC does just fine?
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