Solution
There are no physical slot differences between different generations of PXIe cards. You can expect backward compatibility through various PXI/PXIe generations and can replace older modules with the newer version of that same module. However, the different generations will have differences in maximum data transfer rate:
| Number of Lanes | Gen 1 | Gen 2 | Gen 3 |
|---|
| x1 | 250 MB/s | 500 MB/s | 1 GB/s |
|---|
| x4 | 1 GB/s | 2 GB/s | 4 GB/s |
|---|
| x8 | 2 GB/s | 4 GB/s | 8 GB/s |
|---|
| x16 | 4 GB/s | 8 GB/s | 16 GB/s |
|---|
Please note that the throughput of a PXIe peripheral module inside a PXIe chassis will be limited by the minimum value of generation and the number of lanes. For instance, if you are using a Gen1 x4 (1GB/s) PXIe Module inside a Gen2 x1 (500MB/s) PXIe chassis , the final link based on this configuration will be min [Gen1, Gen2] = Gen1 and min[x4, x1] = x1 i.e., Gen1, x1 link providing 250MB/s.