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PLX Gen 2 PCI Express switch family now available through UR Group

Second product generation doubles the interconnect bit rate over its predecessor

UR Group announces the availability of PLX Technology’s new Gen 2 switches to the UK market. The PCI Express Gen 2 switches are fully compliant with the PCI-SIG® PCIe base specification 2.0, which doubles the interconnect bit rate over its predecessor, to 5 GT/s (GigaTransfers per second) from 2.5 GT/s.

This new product is compatible with Gen 1, allowing ease of migration with existing designs. Integrated non-transparency enables PCIe use in multi-host, host-failover/redundant systems and intelligent I/O modules. These high-performance chips set a new industry standard with a unique feature set, while maintaining leading specifications in lowest power requirements (down to 2.0W), reduced packet latency (to only 140ns), and shrinking the package footprint (to 19mm square).

PLX’s PCIe switches range in density from three to 12 ports and from five to 48 lanes, while the PCIe bridges provide PCI, PCI-X and local-bus support.  Alvin Tucker, PLX Product Manager at UR Group, said: “PLX’s PCI Express switches and bridges provide board and system designers with the industry’s most extensive and proven line-up of products to address a wide variety of market segments.”

A number of built-in control and monitoring functions make the AIT02ZPFC module easy to integrate within a system. Remote-enable and temperature monitoring functions are provided as standard, and the output voltage can be adjusted from 79% to 100% of nominal via a single control pin. Inrush current is limited by an external resistor.

“We are very encouraged by the customer reception of the Gen 2 switches as they ramp to full production,” said David Raun, PLX vice president of marketing and business development.  “With the variety of unique and powerful features built into these chips, customers are finding these unique solutions valuable above and beyond the doubling of speed gained with the Gen 2 specification.”

For more information, call UR Group on 01793 826600.