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It seems reasonable to assume that PCI Express 3.0 will be announced on June 23 at a PCI-SIG meeting in Santa Clara. The spec itself will be published in the second half of this year.

On Friday, I received an invitation to the event, where I was told that PCI Express 3.0 was to be discussed. “Here you will receive a comprehensive update on PCI technologies, including information on the PCIe 3.0 specification publication coming in the second half of this year,” a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

Last year, 2009, was supposed to be the year PCI Express 3.0 was supposed to have been announced. But the standard was delayed for compatibility reasons. At the time, PCI-SIG executives said that PCI Express 3.0 products would most likely ship in 2011, with graphics (and supporting motherboards) as the first products to take advantage of the new spec.

In 2008, the SIG began revealing the specifications of PCI Express 3.0, which will transfer information at 8.0 gigatransfers per second, with the actual bandwidth dependent on the bit width of the interface.

That will still be a critical metric for enthusiasts and graphics designers, as it will eliminate any potential bottlenecks on the interface itself. For most PC users, however, the additional capabilities will simply represent a higher number. PCI-SIG executives have said previously that PCI Express 3.0 cards won’t require a new connector.

Recent PCI SIG events have included PCIe 2.0/3.0 compliance testing seminars. The SIG has only scheduled a pair of compliance seminars for the remainder of the year.