Microchip Sampling PCI100x Family of Switchtec PCIe Gen 4.0 Switches

Efficient management of high-bandwidth data transfer and seamless communication between multiple devices or subsystems are critical in automotive, industrial and data center applications, making PCIe switches an indispensable solution.

They provide scalability, reliability and low-latency connectivity, which are crucial for handling the demanding workloads of modern HPC systems. Microchip Technology, Inc. announces sample availability of the PCI100x family of Switchtec PCIe Gen 4.0 switches in variants to support packet switching and multi-host applications.

The PCI1005 is a packet switch which expands a single host PCIe port to as many as 6 endpoints. The PCI1003 device enables multi-host connectivity through Non-Transparent Bridging (NTB) and is fully configurable to support from 4–8 ports. All devices are compliant with the PCI-SIG Gen5 specification and operate up to 16GT/s. High-speed DMA is supported on all variants. Advanced Switchtec technology features include Automatic Error Reporting (AER), Downstream Port Containment (DPC) and Completion Timeout Synthesis (CTS). The PCI100x devices are available in wide temperature ranges including commercial (0°C to +70°C), industrial (−40°C to +85°C) and Automotive Grade 2 (−40°C to +105°C) ambient ratings.

“The PCI100x family is a cost-effective solution that does not compromise on high performance and high reliability. It enables designers to now take advantage of PCIe switch capabilities for mass market automotive and embedded computing applications,” said Charles Forni, VP, USB and networking business unit, Microchip. “In addition to these connectivity solutions, customers can get many critical components from Microchip including timing, power management and sensors.”

The company’s broad portfolio of PCIe switches provides high-density, low-power and reliable solutions for applications like data centers, GPU servers, SSD enclosures and embedded computing. The portfolio also includes Flashtec NVMe controllers and NVRAM drives, Ethernet PHYs and switches, timing solutions and flash-based FPGAs and SoCs, supporting markets such as storage, automotive, industrial and communications.

Pricing and availability
The PCI1005 and PCI1003 switches are available in limited sample quantities. Pricing for the PCI1005 commercial variant is $43 each in 1,000-unit quantities (note pricing is subject to change).