Yes. Basic PCI requires at least 64 different data signals (plus Vcc and Gnd) across 124 connector pins. This is expensive in terms of board surface, routing pl

Yes. Basic PCI requires at least 64 different data signals (plus Vcc and Gnd) across 124 connector pins. This is expensive in terms of board surface, routing placement and I/O pins. PCI Express x1 requires only 11 data signals plus Vcc and Gnd across 18 pins, but even the v1 spec from 2003 requires a data rate of 2.5GT/s (as opposed to PCI's data rate of only 33 MT/s). This is a much higher rate than most other data signals usually found on these boards, and rates this high have their own challenges in terms of signal routing.