August 15, 2005 -- PLX Technology, Inc. today announced the PLX ExpressLane PEX 8508, a PCIe switch that achieves a new level of interconnect economy, flexibility and functionality. 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.

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, multi-channel 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 2.5-Gbps 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.

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 non-blocking architecture and allows a low packet latency of under 150ns.

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.

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.

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