Source: PLX
March 3, 2008

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.”

“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.”

About UR Group:

UR Group was established in 1999. The company combines design-in expertise with an extensive portfolio of products from leading manufacturers to provide a wide range of solutions for power and communications applications. UR provides critical technology expertise and resources that help its customers to define, design and manufacture products for global markets. Founded in 1996, UR Holdings is a leading European sales organisation that supplies electronic components and sub-assemblies for embedded systems from offices in eight countries. The shares of UR Holdings are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Open Market, Entry Standard).

About PLX

PLX Technology, Inc. (www.plxtech.com), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., USA, is the world’s leading supplier of PCI Express and other standard I/O interconnect semiconductors to the communications, server, storage, embedded-control, and consumer markets. The company provides a competitive advantage through an integrated combination of experience, high-performance silicon, hardware and software design tools, and global partnerships. These innovative solutions enable our customers to develop equipment with industry-leading performance, scalability and reliability that allows them to bring designs to market faster.