Which expansion interface is used to connect devices like NICs, HBAs, RAID cards, GPUs, and accelerators?

• A. USB.
• B. SATA.
• C. PCIe.
• D. Thunderbolt.

Answer: (C)

PCIe is the expansion interface used to connect high-speed internal cards. It provides a direct, point-to-point connection between the motherboard and devices like NICs, HBAs, RAID controllers, GPUs, and accelerators, delivering the bandwidth those components need. PCIe slots come in different widths (x1, x4, x8, x16), so you can choose a slot that matches the device’s bandwidth requirements, with GPUs usually occupying the larger x16 slots and NICs or RAID controllers using smaller ones. This internal bus is the standard path for most performance cards in servers and desktops because it’s designed to handle fast data transfers and direct CPU access. USB and SATA serve different purposes (external peripherals and storage drives, respectively), while Thunderbolt is mainly an external interface that can carry PCIe signals but is not the typical internal expansion path for these devices.