PCI Express switch stars in Chinese demo

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Apr 14, 2005

PLX Technology and Rambus are jointly exhibiting at the Intel Developer Forum in China this week a high-performance PLX PCI Express solution that incorporates Rambus technology.

PLX Technology and Rambus are jointly exhibiting at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in China this week a high-performance PLX PCI Express (PCIe) solution that incorporates Rambus technology.

The PLX PCIe exhibit is based on the PLX ExpressLane PEX 8532, a 32-lane PCIe switch incorporating the Rambus Raser serial/deserialiser (serdes) technology.

PLX is the leading supplier of standard I/O interconnect silicon to the communications, server, storage, embedded-control, and consumer industries.

Rambus is one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specialising in high-speed chip interfaces.

The PEX 8532-based board is part of the PLX PEX 8532 RKD rapid development kit, which PLX is announcing this week.

The PEX 8532 is the industry's only 32-lane PCIe switching device with eight flexible ports, two virtual channels and nontransparent bridging.

The device's flexible port widths allow any port to be configured as either upstream or downstream through hardware strapping, software configuration or an optional EEPROM.

Nontransparent bridging on the PEX 8532 enables any one port to isolate two host or memory domains, enabling use of the PCIe technology in intelligent I/O modules, dual-host and multi-host architectures.

PLX has licensed Rambus's Raser technology for the ExpressLane family to enable the 2.5Gbit/s, point-to-point, serial interface connections required for PCIe-based systems.

"Demonstrating the PLX board in our booths at IDF Taiwan and Beijing will allow customers to get a first-hand look at a best-in-class PCI Express technology implementation", said Jean-Marc Patenaude, Director of Marketing at Rambus.

"We are very pleased to work with PLX on bringing this solution to market".

"Taiwan and China both present tremendous market opportunities for advanced I/O technology in which both PLX and Rambus are expert, including PCI Express", said Frank Ma, Managing Director of PLX Asia-Pacific.

"We're very pleased to be joining Rambus in an exhibit that will showcase for IDF attendees PLX's and Rambus's respective I/O solutions".