Question trace/topology/shielding.?

[therightstuff]

So I was watching some revwes on some z690/z790 mtherboards, and they said the difference between the two is the the z790 has trace/topology/shielding. In simple terms what is this?

 

[kanewolf]

So I was watching some revwes on some z690/z790 mtherboards, and they said the difference between the two is the the z790 has trace/topology/shielding. In simple terms what is this?

The PCIe traces on the motherboard generate noise because the transfer speeds have increased with PCIe 4.0 and 5.0. Shielding would prevent that noise from getting into other circuits.
The shielding would also help ensure that the signals on EACH PCIe lane are not degraded by noise from adjacent PCIe lanes.

 

[Eximo]

All boards will be designed with this in mind. As well as trace length for latency and other high frequency digital signal issues. There is no concern over having a Z690 board. The capabilities it is rated for will be available.

You have to ask yourself what you are likely to plug into the motherboard in the future. If your needs are basic, you might even consider the B660 boards.

 

[drea.drechsler]

So I was watching some revwes on some z690/z790 mtherboards, and they said the difference between the two is the the z790 has trace/topology/shielding. In simple terms what is this?

Topology is the term that describes the layout or arrangement of devices on the motherboard, usually inherent to the particular technology, or technologies, being used.

Trace refers to trace routing, I'd assume data traces from CPU to memory, chipset and PCIe sockets in particular. Ever higher data rates (PCIe gen 5, DDR 5) requires ever more carefully routed traces. It becomes more difficult to arrange devices when allowing for more critical trace routing.

Shielding can mean a couple of things: EMI shielding and use of ground plane motherboard layers that basically sandwich the data trace layers (like shields) to help control the impedance of the data traces.