[neocron]

Might as well be replaced by optical connectors next years, but who knows in advance. Currently there is no competition

[tiernano]

even though it would be optical, it still is using PCIe protocols in the background...

[bobmcnamara]

PCIe is still using PCI protocol just over serdes

[embedding-shape]

How could you possibly know exactly what protocol they'd be using for the potential future optical PCIe connection? Your guess is as good as anyone's, no?

[pjc50]

Hmm. What's the current maths on distance vs edge rate vs transceiver latency vs power consumption on when that would be a benefit? Not to mention how much of a pain it is to have good optical connectors.

I wouldn't expect that to be mainstream until after optical networking becomes more common, and for consumer hardware that's very rare (apart from their modem).