PLX Technology
Encyclopedia
PLX Technology is an integrated circuit
company based in Sunnyvale, California
.
It supplies system-interconnect silicon-based semiconductor
s and firmware for the enterprise communications, storage, server, compute, embedded-control, and consumer storage markets. PLX serial protocol solutions include technology based on 10 Gigabit Ethernet
PCI Express
, USB, SATA
, and FireWire.
(PCI) bus, and provide the ability to include intelligent adapters on a PCI bus.
The PCI 9000 Series provide bus bridges for bothTargets and Masters.
The ExpressLane PCI Express
(PCIe) product family offers configurable switches and bridges.
The NetChip Universal Serial Bus
(USB) Controllers, acquired by PLX and now identified as a product family, are used in printers, portable media player
s, GPS systems, TV tuners
, PCs, laptops, notebooks, netbooks, WLAN devices, mobile phones, digital camera
s and camcorders.
(NAS) and Direct Attached Storage
(DAS) hardware and firmware for consumer storage.
known as 10GBASE-T, using Category 6 cable
or Category 7 cable
.
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
company based in Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
.
It supplies system-interconnect silicon-based semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
s and firmware for the enterprise communications, storage, server, compute, embedded-control, and consumer storage markets. PLX serial protocol solutions include technology based on 10 Gigabit Ethernet
10 Gigabit Ethernet
The 10 gigabit Ethernet computer networking standard was first published in 2002. It defines a version of Ethernet with a nominal data rate of 10 Gbit/s , ten times faster than gigabit Ethernet.10 gigabit Ethernet defines only full duplex point to point links which are generally connected by...
PCI Express
PCI Express
PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
, USB, SATA
Sata
Sata is a traditional dish from the Malaysian state of Terengganu, consisting of spiced fish meat wrapped in banana leaves and cooked on a grill.It is a type of Malaysian fish cake, or otak-otak...
, and FireWire.
Input/output
FastLane PCI 6000 series bridges allow more devices to be attached to the Peripheral Component InterconnectPeripheral Component Interconnect
Conventional PCI is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer...
(PCI) bus, and provide the ability to include intelligent adapters on a PCI bus.
The PCI 9000 Series provide bus bridges for bothTargets and Masters.
The ExpressLane PCI Express
PCI Express
PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
(PCIe) product family offers configurable switches and bridges.
The NetChip Universal Serial Bus
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
(USB) Controllers, acquired by PLX and now identified as a product family, are used in printers, portable media player
Portable media player
A portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...
s, GPS systems, TV tuners
TV tuner card
A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the Tivo digital video recorder does.-Variants: The interfaces for...
, PCs, laptops, notebooks, netbooks, WLAN devices, mobile phones, digital camera
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
s and camcorders.
Consumer
PLX, through its acquisition of Oxford Semiconductor in January 2009, designs and manufactures Network-attached storageNetwork-attached storage
Network-attached storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. NAS not only operates as a file server, but is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements...
(NAS) and Direct Attached Storage
Direct Attached Storage
Direct-attached storage refers to a digital storage system directly attached to a server or workstation, without a storage network in between...
(DAS) hardware and firmware for consumer storage.
Ethernet
PLX purchased the Teranetics company in 2010. Products from this merger support physical layer connection to 10 Gigabit Ethernet10 Gigabit Ethernet
The 10 gigabit Ethernet computer networking standard was first published in 2002. It defines a version of Ethernet with a nominal data rate of 10 Gbit/s , ten times faster than gigabit Ethernet.10 gigabit Ethernet defines only full duplex point to point links which are generally connected by...
known as 10GBASE-T, using Category 6 cable
Category 6 cable
Category 6 cable, commonly referred to as Cat 6, is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network physical layers that is backward compatible with the Category 5/5e and Category 3 cable standards. Compared with Cat 5 and Cat 5e, Cat 6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk...
or Category 7 cable
Category 7 cable
Category 7 cable , , is a cable standard for Ethernet and other interconnect technologies that can be made to be backward compatible with Cat 5 and Cat 6. Cat 7 features even more strict specifications for crosstalk and system noise than Cat 6...
.
External links
- http://www.plxtech.com/about/news/articles (PLX Archive)
- Intelligent Switches: The Next-Generation PCI Express Interconnect (RTC magazine)
- DMA in PCIe Switches Boosts Performance in Demanding Applications (Electronic Products - SemiApps magazine)
- PCIe expands interconnect potential for next-gen systems (EE Times India)
- The PCI Express switch and bridge landscape. Switches expand into bridging, and Gen 2 offers simplification opportunities (Electronic Products magazine)
- Expanding Atom's PCI Express lanes (Small Form FactorSmall form factorA small form factor is a computer form factor designed to minimize the volume of a desktop computer. For comparison purposes, the size of an SFF case is usually measured in litres. SFFs are available in a variety of sizes and shapes, including shoeboxes, cubes, and book-sized PCs...
magazine) - Get bandwidth relief in PCIe systems (Embedded Systems DesignSystems designSystems design is the process of defining the architecture, components, modules, interfaces, and data for a system to satisfy specified requirements. One could see it as the application of systems theory to product development...
) - PCIe Switching Technology Tackles Industrial Market (Semiconductor Applications–Hearst)
- IO Virtualization and Convergence in Consolidating Data Centers (Data Center Journal)
- Dualcast and Multicast Unblock Bottlenecks in Diverse Applications (Computer Technology Review)
- System Performance in Host-Centric Applications (EE Times)
- Crossing the Bridge to PCIe Switches (Electronic Design Europe)
- Free up bandwidth in PCI Express designs (Embedded.com and Embedded SystemsEmbedded systemAn embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...
Design) - Blind prefetching improves PCI Express-to-PCI-bridge performance (EDN magazine)
- PCIe switches with integrated instrumentation speed product development (Embedded Computing)