PLX Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLXT), a supplier of high-speed I/O connectivity solutions, and Avago Technologies (NASDAQ: AVGO), a supplier of analog interface components, announced that they have collaborated to demonstrate how PCI Express (PCIe) may extend "beyond its dominant role within the box to a cabled box-to-box solution."
The demonstration from the collaboration between companies features the PLX PEX8748 PCIe Gen3 (8Gbps per lane) switches, in conjunction with Avago high-density MiniPOD parallel fiber optic modules, both of which are setup in a x8 configuration, to showcase external box-to-box high-performance connectivity at 64Gbps. The companies contend that PCI Express as an interconnect for data centers using parallel optics will enable a wide variety of applications including storage, servers and GPU clustering.
According to the companies, the demonstrated higher-performance PCIe alternative "is paving the road for next-generation data center applications where lower latency, lower cost, extended cabling distances, and I/O conversion minimization create simpler architectures for cleaner PCIe end-to-end environments."
“With PCI Express now native virtually everywhere, including Intel platforms and SSD storage modules, the market is hungry for reliable and harmonious solutions,” said Reggie Conley, senior director, hardware applications, PLX. “As the market drives down the cost of optical solutions, today’s cumbersome and costly conversion of PCI Express to Ethernet or InfiniBand will be replaced by clean system architectures enjoying the fruits of PCIe and optical connectivity’s premium performance.”
“PCI Express is a natural fit for our MiniPOD embedded parallel optics, which deliver the speed and overall performance necessary to enable box-to-box connections,” added Victor Krutul, director of marketing for fiber optic products at Avago. “Our work with PLX provides another example of Avago serving as the technology partner of choice to develop innovative fiber optic solutions for new applications.”
More News:PLX to explore 10GBase-T enhancements at Ethernet Summit
PLX and Avago will demonstrate this solution at the PCI-SIG Developers Conference, June 22-23, and at Avago’s Fiber Optic Solutions Product Seminar, June 23, both in Santa Clara, Calif.
More Info:
www.plxtech.com
www.avagotech.com