Serial Cables: 2.5-Inch PCIe Gen 4 8-Bay Managed JBOF

Serial Cables, LLC introduced the first PCIe Gen 4, 8-bay managed JBOF, the PCI-ENC16G-BG8, PCI-ENC16-DA-01, PCI-ENC16-DA-02.

“Serial Cables has been making direct attach and PCIe switch based JBOF’s for several years now,” said Paul J. Mutschler, CEO. “Being a leader in the newest technology, Serial Cables is now announcing our 2.5″, PCIe Gen4, 8-bay managed JBOF based on the Broadcom, Inc.‘s Atlas Gen4 PCIe 48 lane switch. The new PCIe Gen4 JBOF is built on a clever mid-plane design where it can be changed from a PCIe managed switch based JBOF to a direct attach 2.5″, 8-bay JBOF with a simple midplane replacement.”

This generation of JBOF has SFF-8644 support for the managed and direct attach version as well as a midplane version based around the SlimSAS connectors.

Prototypes of the PCI-ENC16G-BG8 in Q4 of 2018 with production available 1Q19.

This PCIe Gen4, 8-bay JBOF coupled with Serial Cables PCIe Gen4 host card and Gen4 SFF-8644 based cables are available in a kit or individually packaged.

PCIe Gen 4 includes improvements in flexibility, scalability and lower-power due to bandwidth bifurcation options of the cable and modern 16nm integrated circuit design.