Microsemi’s Switchtec PFX-I Gen3 PCIe switches add support for the extended industrial temperature range, -40°C ambient to +105°C junction. The switches include the feature set of the company's PFX PCIe fanout switches, but are designed to operate in harsher environments. The extended industrial temperature PCIe Gen3 switch family has passed thermal cycle testing, interval testing at various extreme temperatures and vigorous temperature humidity testing of several hundred hours to ensure durability at different humidity levels and wide temperature ranges.
The switches provide up to 48 ports, 48 Non-Transparent Bridges (NTBs), 24 virtual switches, advanced error handling, hot- and surprise-plug controllers, dynamic port bifurcation, and dynamic partitioning. They are viable for a variety of industrial and defense applications, such as medical imaging, instrumentation, security and radars. The family comprises switches from 96 lanes to 24 lanes, providing:
- Flexible port bifurcation in the industry, from x2, x4, x8, x16 lanes per port;
- High port density, NTB density, and switch partition density;
- Advanced error containment and hot- and surprise-plug support to prevent system crashes;
- Advanced diagnostics and debug features to identify, diagnose and fix problems; and
- Separate Refclk Independent SSC (SRIS) for cabled PCIe and lower cost system designs.
The extended industrial Gen3 PCIe switches are in production and available to order now. For more information, peruse the PM857x PFX-I datasheet.