Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: PLX Technology Europe | Subject: PEX 8508
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 17 August 2005
Five-port switch brings PCI Express to
new tasks
The PEX 8508 is the first five-port PCIe switch for applications such as high-end printers, multichannel network adapter cards and notebook-docking stations.
New from PLX Technology, the ExpressLane PEX 8508 PCIe switch is claimed to achieve a new level of interconnect economy, flexibility and functionality Priced at under $15 in volume quantities, the eight-lane PEX 8508 enables a wider range of applications to take advantage of its five highly configurable ports, peer-to-peer switching and data-aggregation capability
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 2 May 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Designed to be fully compliant with the PCI Express Specification R1.1, the PEX 8508 is the first five-port PCIe switch for applications such as high-end printers, multichannel network adapter cards and notebook-docking stations.
Until recently, these applications were primarily the domain of conventional PCI; with the PEX 8508, new designs and those migrating from PCI now can feature PCIe's 2.5Gbit/s serial interface, point-to-point links, and advanced system management.
This migration to PCIe is eased by the PEX 8508's software compatibility with PCI at the driver, BIOS and operating-system levels.
Further reading
Switched-PCI alternative for storage
As storage-system makers begin to adopt alternative interconnect technologies, switched-PCI is providing them a means of expanding and improving the overall performance of their systems.
Interconnect devices support PCI Express
PLX Technology is developing I/O interconnect devices based on the next-generation input/output architecture PCI Express.
Upgraded PCI drivers speed I/O accelerators
The latest software development kit from PLX Technology dramatically boosts performance - up to 42 times - in Linux and Microsoft Windows XP drivers for all PLX I/O accelerator devices.
The PEX 8508's second-generation PCI Express architecture, along with its low lane-to-port-count ratio, delivers a cost-effective switch and reduced footprint for space-constrained applications.
The switch also features a fully nonblocking architecture and allows a low packet latency of under 150ns.
"While the first generation of PLX ExpressLane devices presently are being designed into such applications as server, storage and high-end graphics systems, the new PEX 8508 is enabling PCI Express to penetrate a broader range of products", said John Gudmundson, PLX Senior Product Marketing Manager.
"It allows, for the first time, designs that were PCI-only to migrate smoothly and economically to the PCI Express architecture".
"With this ease of migration, PLX is bringing PCI Express further into the mainstream and empowering designs with this fast, versatile interconnect technology".
The PEX 8508 features up to five highly configurable ports where eight lanes can be arranged in a wide variety of lane-width combinations, including four x1 and one x4, and four x2 port options.
Each port on the PEX 8508 can be configured as either upstream or downstream and support fan-in/fan-out designs, as well as complete peer-to-peer switching functionality.
This enables a system's or board's I/O bandwidth to be tailored to a specific application and allows for a design with changing requirements to use the same low-cost switch in each variation of the design.
Additionally, system architects can easily use the same part in subsequent projects.
Furthermore, the PEX 8508 provides crucial power-management capabilities to applications such as docking stations, media servers, and iSCSI storage systems.
The switch features active-state power management, which automatically reduces link power usage when no traffic is present.
Optional auxiliary power input allows the switch to go into an ultra-low-power state, yet "wake up" automatically with support for in-band and out-of-band signalling.
The PEX 8508 integrates the serialiser/deserialiser (serdes) functions with power-reduction capabilities, resulting is a power consumption of 2.5W.
The PEX 8508 also provides a number of features that are optional in the PCIe specification but which PLX has integrated into its entire ExpressLane switch family: up to two full-featured virtual channels per port and eight traffic classes, which enables data prioritisation in combined data- and control-plane applications such as communication systems; end-to-end CRC and "poison bit" support, helping systems achieve error-free data transfers; advanced error reporting, which provides an additional system monitoring tool; PHPC R1.1 hot plug capability on every port, easing board replacement without powering down systems; nontransparent bridging, enabling processor-domain isolation required in multiple-host systems; and dual-clock domain support with both spread-spectrum and constant-frequency clocking, allowing the upstream port to isolate the spread spectrum clock.
As with all PLX I/O interconnect devices, the PEX 8508 is supported by the PLX rapid development kit (RDK) line of tools.
The PLX ExpressLane PEX 8508RDK includes a proven, working hardware platform incorporating the PEX 8508 chip, complete set of board schematics, symbols and layout files for hardware design, and an extensive software development kit (SDK) that includes a graphical utility for access to chip registers, sample drivers and support library for Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.
The PLX PEX 8508 PCI Express switch, available in a 19 x 19mm, 273-pin PBGA package, is expected to sample in Q4 and priced at under $15.00 in volume quantities.
As with other PLX devices, the PEX 8508 is available in leaded and lead-free packaging.
The PEX 8508RDK rapid development kit is scheduled to be available in Q4 2005 for $995.00.
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