On 11 April 2012, at 17:33, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: >>> >>> I've posted a snapshot of the Dell's internals on my ISP's personal >>> >>> webspace at http://clients.teksavvy.com/~walterdnes/misc/dell2.jpg Is >>> the long black slot PCIe? What's the short black slot? >> >> The long black slot looks like PCIe. To be precise, PCIe x16. The short >> black slot is PCIe x1, (originally) meant for low-bandwidth devices like a >> fax modem. > > oh so wrong. Even a single PCIe lane is faster than an entire PCI bus.
I think the confusion here may lie in the fact that (some?) motherboard manufacturers used to make motherboards with an onboard modem; they had the socket on a daughterboard so that OEMs could choose whether or not to install it. The ones I'm thinking of used used a little socket which looks exactly like the small PCIe connector - I think it shared space with a PCI socket (so the OEM could choose to advertise either the modem or X+1 PCI slots). Stroller.
