mini pci express pinout. Adapter PCIe-miniPCIe: connect modules from a laptop to a regular PC

And a high - performance physical protocol based on serial data transfer .

The development of the PCI Express standard was started by Intel after the abandonment of the InfiniBand bus. Officially, the first basic PCI Express specification appeared in July 2002. The PCI Express standard is being developed by the PCI Special Interest Group.

Description

Unlike the PCI standard, which used a common bus for data transfer with several devices connected in parallel, PCI Express, in general, is a packet network with a star topology.

PCI Express devices communicate with each other through a medium formed by switches, with each device directly connected by a point-to-point connection to the switch.

In addition, the PCI Express bus supports:

• guaranteed bandwidth (QoS);
• energy management;
• integrity control of transmitted data.

The PCI Express bus is intended to be used as a local bus only. Since the software model of PCI Express is largely inherited from PCI, existing systems and controllers can be modified to use the PCI Express bus by replacing only the physical layer, without modifying the software. The high peak performance of the PCI Express bus allows it to be used instead of AGP buses, and even more so PCI and PCI-X. The de facto PCI Express has replaced these buses in personal computers.

Connectors

PCI Express X1

Mini PCI-E

Mini PCI Express is a PCI Express bus format for portable devices.

There are many peripherals available for this connector standard:

MiniPCI and MiniPCI Express

Mini PCI Express SSD

• Power supply 3.3 V

express card

ExpressCard slots are used in laptops to connect:

• SSD drive boards
• Video cards
• 1394/FireWire controllers (iLINK)
• docking stations
• measuring instruments
• Memory card adapters (CF, MS, SD, xD, etc.)
• Network adapters
• Parallel and serial port controllers
• PC Card/PCMCIA Adapters
• remote control
• SATA controllers
• Smartcard adapters
• TV tuners
• USB controllers
• Wi-Fi wireless network adapters
• Wireless broadband internet adapters (3G, CDMA, EVDO, GPRS, UMTS, etc.)
• Sound cards for home multimedia and professional audio interfaces.

Protocol description

Video card for PCI Express x16

To connect a PCI Express device, a bidirectional point-to-point serial connection is used, called a line (English lane - lane, row); this differs sharply from PCI, in which all devices are connected to a common 32-bit parallel bidirectional bus.

PCI Express 2.0

According to PCI-SIG, the first tests of PCI Express 3.0 began in 2011, compatibility testing tools for partners appeared only in the middle of 2011, and real devices only in 2012.

PCI Express 4.0

The PCI Special Interest Group (PCI SIG) has stated that PCI Express 4.0 could be standardized before the end of 2016, but as of mid-2016, when a number of chips were already being prepared for production, the media reported that standardization was expected in early 2017. It was expected to have a bandwidth of 16 GT/s, which means it would be twice as fast as PCIe 3.0. Later, the standardization deadlines were postponed, and the specification was published only on October 5, 2017. Compared to the PCI Express 3.0 specification, the maximum data transfer rate on the PCI Express bus has been doubled from 8 to 16 GT/s. In addition, latency has been reduced, scalability has been improved, and support for virtualization has been improved. For 4 lines, the data transfer rate is 8 GB / s, for 16 lines - 32 GB / s.

PCI Express 5.0

In May 2019, the final specification for the PCI Express 5.0 standard appeared. The data transfer rate on the PCI Express bus was 32 GT/s. It is expected that such a speed will positively affect projects related to virtual reality. For 4 lines, the data transfer rate is 16 GB / s, for 16 lines - 64 GB / s.

PCI Express 6.0

The final specification of the PCI Express 6.0 standard is scheduled for publication in 2021. The expected data transfer rate will be 32 GB / s for 4 lines and 128 GB / s for 16 lines.

see also

Notes

1. Slyusar VI New standards of industrial computer systems. //Electronics: science, technology, business. - 2005. - No. 6. - S. 52 - 53.
2. Slusar V. I. PCI Express. The face of the standard.// The world of automation. - 2006. - No. 1. - C. 38 - 41.
3. Reserved SIM pins : Marked with "*Reserved for future Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) interface (if needed)"
4. (indefinite) (unavailable link). Retrieved April 10, 2010. Archived from the original on February 16, 2011.
5. PCI Express 3.0. Frequently Asked Questions. PCI SIG. Archived from the original on February 18, 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2008. (English)
6. Review Zone | PCI-SIG(English) . pcisig.com. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
7. PCIe 5.0 Arriving in 2019 With 4x More Bandwidth Than PCIe 3.0 / Joel Hruska, June 9, 2017

In most modern laptops, expansion cards are internally implemented in the form factor and with a MiniPCI-e connector. Usually it is occupied by a WiFi card, but, in addition to one occupied, it often happens that there is a second connector that is not occupied by anything. Accessing it is usually no more difficult than accessing memory / hard drive / other expansion cards, although in some laptops you will have to remove the bottom cover to do this.

Once there is a connector, the question arises, for what it can be used.

The Mini PCI-e format is a mobile version of pci express, where usb 2.0 is additionally output and several pins that can be used by manufacturers at their discretion. It turns out that in fact there are not so few devices that can be plugged in, there would be a need. I thought that since the question “what can be put there” is asked, then it can be answered in more detail than usual.

Here is the list of irons. I did not set out to collect and describe everything here, but most of it, for sure. The price of the pieces of iron is indicated on ebay.com, and I did not take the cheapest option. Usually the price is together with delivery, but this already needs to be clarified when you decide to buy it, sellers and conditions are different.

1. WiFi card. Map for wireless internet. It couldn't be easier, and that's how at least one slot is usually used. Why do you need a replacement - firstly, if you want to put a faster card (standard “N” instead of “G”). Secondly, if you decide to install MacOS, then not all cards are supported in it, and a compatible one is inexpensive. Thirdly, to expand the capabilities of the card - for example, combined WiFi / Bluetooth or WiFi / WiMax cards are sold. What you need to remember is that any wifi card of this format requires antennas to be connected, these are two or three (for a full-fledged “N”) wires that are located in the laptop lid, under the screen. No antenna, no signal. The length of the wires that you already have in your laptop is usually sufficient to connect the card only to the slot where such a card is already installed, and the second slot can be located much further. To replace antennas or lay new ones, you will have to disassemble the laptop almost entirely, incl. - disassemble the screen. In the photo above, such a card is of a standard size, under it is the half size form factor, half size. The price of such cards is up to 10 usd for Chinese nameless cards, and about 25 for branded ones. Essentially, there is no difference. Cards with support for the N standard or together with bluetooth are more expensive, but the order of price remains.
2. Broadcom HD video chip(you can search for WX637). This thing is relevant for netbooks. Allows you to decode video, including maximum HD quality with a high bitrate, with almost any processor, greatly removing the load from it and reducing energy consumption. If netbooks of previous generations (on some Atom 250) and Intel chipsets stick together fins when trying to play heavy video, then such a card solves the problem one-two-three. Supported by all popular operating systems. For new netbooks, it's not relevant, because. there, the capabilities of hardware decoding are embedded in the video chips, but the capabilities of each chip (and therefore the netbook) are still different. Laptops are better - almost any more or less modern laptop can be configured to play HD video using its video card, without having to buy anything extra. The cost of such a card is approximately 40 usd.
3. TV tuner. Allows you to receive TV and radio. There are different, See what standards are supported. So, for example, in Latvia analog television has practically died out, and a digital receiver is required. An important point - any TV tuner for internal use requires an antenna connection! If your laptop initially had no space for a connector outside, you will have to work hard to bring it out. There are models where, depending on the configuration, a TV tuner could be installed or not installed, and in such, as a rule, there is a place for an exit, it is simply closed with a plug. The cost of the tuner is from 25 usd.
4. Mini PCI-e PCI Express to SATA USB Coverter Adapter . Behind this terrible name lies a scarf with a pair of connectors, where connectors for USB and SATA are brought out. What it can do, well, at least, it makes it easier to connect a usb device directly to minipci-e: you can put a USB flash drive and use it, as a ready boost / turbo memory, you can put a usb receiver from a wireless mouse / keyboard inside, and much more. On the other hand, if you have some skill, you can already bring them out, directly from mini pci-e contacts, but this is already a modification that easily breaks the guarantee. The cost of such a scarf is approx. 8usd.
5. Turbo memory. Once upon a time, at the dawn of Windows Vista, Intel proudly presented the world with Intel Turbo Memory technology (and ReadyBoost, as an integral part of it). What is its essence is the use of fast flash memory connected to minipci-e as a place to create and store a kind of cache of files currently used by the operating system. The idea of ​​this thing is that access to an arbitrary part of the flash memory is very fast, unlike hdd, so theoretically it increased the speed of the system (and the average budget computer of that time did very poorly with Vista, whose system requirements for comfortable work at the time yields were extremely high). In fact, it turned out that if you close your eyes to advertising words, then somehow the technology manifests itself on systems with small amounts of RAM (up to 1GB), and even then, this effect is quite subtle even in tests, not to mention normal work (here is one of the tests). If there is more RAM, the presence of TurboMemory becomes almost meaningless. Having suffered a fiasco, the technology was buried, and laptops were no longer equipped with such cards, but you can buy them - the price of a Chinese TurboMemory card is approx. 12usd for 1GB version. I think that a flash drive of the same size will be much more useful, but it's up to you to decide.
6. CF Card to Mini PCI-E . An exotic thing that allows you to use CompactFlash memory cards as a storage medium. The relevance of such a thing is small, but I know successful examples of its use - these are routers under the control of various *-nix systems, where a CF card replaces a hard drive. Another option for such an adapter is a card with an SD slot. The idea is exactly the same, the size is smaller, and therefore it will fit in almost any laptop. In fact, this is a USB card reader, and through the adapter you can put cards of almost any format compatible with SD (SD, Mini-SD, Micro-SD, SDHC, MMC, RS-MMC, Moblie-MMC, MMC-micro, MMC-plus ). The price of such an adapter card is about 6 usd. Please note that the slot for connecting the card can be located both on one side and on the other - this must be taken into account, because the installation space is limited.
7. Mini PCI-e to ZIF. An even more exotic thing that allows you to connect zif drives. These are such very small hard drives, 1.8 inches (Regular laptop is 2.5, desktop is 3.5 inches). At the moment, they are not particularly used anywhere, so it is useful only to those who accidentally have such disks left - their small size allows them to be placed very compactly, and in the cases of large (with a screen of 17 and inches) laptops sometimes even have space for this.
8. Mini PCI-E PCI-E adapter. This one should probably be seperate. As the name implies, this is an adapter from mini pci-e to standard, as in the desktop, pci-e. The possibilities are clear, this is the connection of any device designed for such a connector, and, in particular - video cards. Those. in fact, you can connect a powerful external video card to your laptop. There are a lot of minuses, this is the inconvenience of connecting, the need to use an external power supply for the video card, and the lack of a hole above your mini pci-e slot to bring all this “happiness” out, because for which you have to use a laptop with the back cover removed, and a low data transfer rate, which will never allow the video card to "work" to its fullest. Plus one, but huge: for relatively little money you get the opportunity to use a video card that can be in tens and hundreds of times faster than the one built into your laptop.

While everything. I'll add some more later.