PCIe Gen3 switches have 12 or 16 lanes

The ExpressLane PEX8713 and PEX8717 PCIe Gen3 switches have 12 lanes, 10 ports or 16 lanes, 10 ports and are able to move 8 Gbits/s per lane in both directions, enabling designers to have a x2 native architecture to connect high bandwidth endpoints such as Thunderbolt, SAS/SATA, and USB 3.0. Each port can be set for for PCIe Gen1, Gen2, or Gen3 speeds.

The devices architecture allows users to configure the device in legacy single-host mode or multi-host mode with up to two host ports capable of 1+1 host failover. The ICs come in a 19 x 19 mm 324-pin FCBGA package and take 4.7 to 4.9 W typ. They have an integrated DMA engine and support packet cut-thru with a maximum latency of 138 ns. (From $20 in high volume — available now.)

By Jim Harrison

PLX Technology , Sunnyvale , CA
Information 408-774-9060
www.plxtech.com