PCIE-1612B-AE, The PCI Express Bus is a high-speed, scalable I/O serial bus technology that is standard designed to replace the PCI bus. Thus, PCI Express has numerous advantages such as higher maximum system bus throughput, less I/O pin, more detailed error detection and reporting mechanism, and smaller physical footprint. Although, at the hardware level PCI slots and PCIe slots are not interchangeable, at the software level PCI Express preserves compatibility with PCI device drivers and OS.
PCI Express is a point-to-point connection, which means it does not share bandwidth but communicates directly with devices via a switch that directs data flow. By adding more lanes, scalable features can be achieved for greater bandwidth.
The PCIe link between PC and other devices can consist of 1 to 32 lanes. These numbers indicate the number of lanes you wish to have. For example, PCIe x16 has 16 lanes.