[geeks] Thoughts re: PCI --> AGP upgrades

[Gregory Leblanc]

On Mon, Oct 21, 2002 at 06:55:47PM -0400, Andrew Weiss wrote:
> The xServe also contains a half-length PCI slot that can contain an AGP card
> via a special adapter. (the ATI Radeon 64 CTO option)  The slot normally
> comes with a second Gig E adapter.
> 
> So I think something is going on.  They say that AGP is merely a special
> type of PCI slot... I forget the exact additional details that make it
> special... might be power requirements in addition to bandwidth.

I haven't looked at how Apple uses AGP, but on x86 machines, the AGP
slot isn't part of the PCI bus.  It gets piped off of the chipset at
the same point as memory, and other busses.  I don't know whether it
actually uses PCI commands or not.
    Greg