PEX 8532 Applications
PLX Technology, Inc.
2.1.4
Low Power with Granular SerDes Control
The PEX 8532 provides low-power capability that is fully compliant with the PCI Express Base r1.0a
Power Management specifications. Unused SerDes can be disabled to reduce power consumption.
The PEX 8532 supports SerDes output software control to allow power and signal strength optimization
in a system. The PLX SerDes implementation supports four power levels – Off, Low, Typical, and High.
The SerDes block also supports Loop-Back modes and Advanced Error Reporting, which enables
efficient system debug and management.
2.1.5
Flexible Port-Width Configuration
The lane width per port can be individually configured through auto-negotiation, hardware strapping,
upstream software configuration, or an optional serial EEPROM.
The PEX 8532 supports a large number of port configurations. For example, if the PEX 8532 is used in
a fan-out application (as illustrated in Figure 2-2), the upstream port can be configured as x8, and the
downstream ports can be configured as follows:
• Six x4 ports
• Two x8 and two x4 ports
• Three x8 ports
• Or any other combination, provided that available lanes or ports are not exceeded
For peer-to-peer applications, all eight ports can be configured as x4 or x2, or a combination of the two.
In port aggregation applications, four x2 or x4 ports can be configured for aggregation into one x8
or x16 port. Figure 2-1 illustrates the most common port configurations.
Each port supports lane reversal for system design flexibility.
Figure 2-1. Common Port Width Configurations
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ExpressLane PEX 8532AA/BA/BB/BC 8-Port/32-Lane Versatile PCI Express Switch Data Book
Copyright © 2007 by PLX Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved – Version 1.6
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