Posted 08/05/09 at 06:19:46 PM by Andy Salisbury

The new PCI protocol, which has promised to double the data transfer rates of many add-on cards, has been delayed until mid-next year.

According to the PCI Special Interest Group, the protocol (which was due in 2009) will be held back even though most of the work has been done. Apparently, many problems have arisen with backwards compatibility and electrical requirements. But, moreover, the group has “underestimated the sheer amount of work needed” to get it out the door.

PCI 3.0 will reportedly provide speeds of 32GB/second, along with decreasing the amount of power drawn. Motherboards featuring this standard are expected to show up sometime in summer 2011.

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Posted 07/24/08 at 11:34:10 AM by Paul Lilly

Have you ever run into an old ex-girlfriend only to realize she's nothing the way you remembered? Or fired up that retro-game and wondered what you found so appealing about it in the first place? Every once in awhile a blast from the past (like bringing WarGames back to theaters) will make a worthwhile comeback, but more often than not, old relics are best left buried, and Albatron might be finding this out.

Earlier this month the company let it be known it would be bringing Nvidia's 8-series videocards in 8400, 8500, and 8600 trim  to the PCI bus, but those plans have hit a snag and it might be awhile before we see another PCI videocard. Even though the PCI bus has been around since close to the dawn of time, not all motherboards stick to the same signaling implementation for the PCI interface, and Albatron fears that compatibility with different motherboards could become a problem.

Sam Nada, Albatron's International PR representative, says the company's engineers are working on optimizing the BIOS to ensure a smooth rollout, but it will be a couple of weeks before the new Retrotechnology cards make a debut. But what's a couple of weeks if you've already staved off the upgrade bug for this long?

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