discussion SKYMTL, can you please comment???

[StockClocker]

I don't see how eliminating an in-between pci-express controller to communicate between the two cores could possibly be a bad thing... or consume more power? If anything, one less chip means less power, less latency? Possible increase in peformance, less complicated PCB design?

I don't think it's possible to eliminate the PLX switch since it's needed to for the GPUs to share the PCI-E bus.
It'd be nice to see sideport return if it can really improve CF performance, but we would have to at least wait until ATI's next-gen since it was cut from Cypress.

 

[Zero82z]

I don't think it's possible to eliminate the PLX switch since it's needed to for the GPUs to share the PCI-E bus.

Correct. However, I think his idea was that the Sideport could be used to remove the need for the second GPU to be connected to the PCI-E bus altogether. I don't know if that's even feasible though, let alone beneficial. But it is an interesting idea.