METHOD OF CONNECTING A PCIe BUS EXTENSION SYSTEM

A method of connecting a PCIe-compliant peripheral device to a PCIe bus of a computer system, the method comprising:

• installing a PCIe interface card in an enclosure of the computer system, the PCIe interface card being installed to have an edge connector thereof functionally connected with PCIe expansion slot on a motherboard within the enclosure, the PCIe interface card having a logic integrated circuit to functionally connect PCIe signals transmitted from the motherboard to an interface port on the PCIe interface card and functionally connect PCIe signals transmitted from the interface port to the motherboard;
• connecting a PCIe-compliant peripheral device to the PCIe interface card with a cable configured for complete crossover of all of the PCIe signals, the cable being connected to the interface port of the PCIe interface card and to an interface port of the PCIe-compliant peripheral device that is functionally identical to the interface port on the PCIe interface card but with a mirror-symmetric pinout to receive clock and data signals from the PCIe interface card and to send data signals to the PCIe interface card;
• transmitting the PCIe signals between the motherboard and the PCIe-compliant peripheral device through the cable and the interface port on the PCIe interface card, wherein multiple parallel lanes of the PCIe signals are transferred over the cable as a single channel in full duplex mode;
• and
• wherein the PCIe-compliant peripheral device does not receive power through the PCIe interface card or cable.